Air waybill changes take effect next month

A DATE to note for airfreight users is March 17 – when the International Air Transport Association (Iata) is due to alter the conditions of carriage on its air waybills worldwide. “The changes,” according to Jeff Epstein, senior freight auditor at Safcor Panalpina, “are intended to simplify the conditions of carriage by making them subject to both the Warsaw Convention (as at present) as well as the Montreal Convention.” The basic reason for the changes, he added, is that the carriers’ liability in the Warsaw Convention is set at 250 gold francs (GF) per kilogram and in the Montreal Convention at 17 SDR per kilogram. “That’s where the problem arose,” said Epstein, “the Gold Standard was scrapped in 1933 and the Gold Franc is an obsolete currency.” To overcome it, Iata has got its member airlines – some 240 airlines, carrying 94% of scheduled international air traffic – to accede to an exchange rate of 250 GFs equalling 17 special drawing rights (SDRs). In real money, according to Epstein, that currently works out at “just over R200 per kilogram”. “Other changes include the optional phasing out of coloured waybills and the printing of these on ordinary paper,” he added, “and the obsolescence of paper passenger tickets from mid-year.”