National carrier Gulf Air, which has recently introduced e-Airway bill for its cargo shipment, shared its e-freight initiatives at the Air Cargo Working Group meeting held earlier this week in Bahrain. Held under the auspices of the Bahrain Minister of Transport, Civil Aviation Affairs and Airport Company, the Bahrain Air Cargo Working Group meeting was joined by major players in the air cargo industry such as airlines, ground handling agents, freight forwarders, customs authorities and others. Attended by over 50 participants, the meeting discussed and shared each other’s experiences on how bring about improvements in cargo service and security standards including adoption of e-freight practices, in line with the International Air Travel Association’s (IATA) recommendations. Mr. Khalid Faqih, Gulf Air Senior Manager Cargo and the Chairman of Air Cargo Working Group Bahrain, outlined a range of e-freight initiatives that the industry is planning to embrace – adoption of e-Airway Bill in place of the traditional paper Air Way Bill, switching to bar code labels on shipments to enable easy track and trace and prepare for e-freight. He also shared Gulf Air’s experience in introducing the E-Airway bill and its progress towards adapting various e-freight measures.IATA’s vision is to have 100% e-freight by 2015 and Gulf Air has pioneered this initiative in Bahrain with the introduction of E-Airway bill last month, joining the select club of only three Gulf-based airlines to achieve this capability.