Air Waybill (AWB)

Definition

An air waybill, or AWB, is the transport document for a shipment that moves by air. It is the contract between the shipper and the airline, and it is the airline’s receipt showing that it accepted the goods. You will also see it written as “airway bill.”

The easiest way to picture it is a receipt with a contract printed on the back. The front says who sent the cargo, who gets it, and what is in the boxes, and the back holds the airline’s terms, including how much the airline owes if something goes wrong.

An AWB is not a document of title, and that is the part people miss. You cannot sign it over to someone else to hand them the cargo the way you can with an ocean bill of lading, because the airline delivers to the person named on it. That is why “Not Negotiable” is printed at the top of the form.

Many AWBs never exist on paper at all. Since January 1, 2019, the rules of IATA, the global airline trade association, have made the electronic version, called the e-AWB, the default on trade lanes where it is allowed.

What it contains

An AWB holds everything the airline needs to move the cargo, bill for it, and hand it over. Most of that information falls into five groups.

1. The parties: An AWB names the shipper, the consignee (the company or person receiving the cargo), and the airline or cargo agent that issued the form.

2. The route: The form lists the airport where the cargo starts, the airport where it ends, and any stops and carriers in between.

3. The cargo: The form shows the number of pieces, the gross weight, the chargeable weight, and a description of the goods with their size.

4. The money: The form records the freight rate, each charge, and whether the charge is prepaid or collected. It also has a declared value for carriage, which sets how much the airline can owe if the cargo is lost, and a declared value for customs.

5. The instructions and sign-off: The form carries handling notes, such as temperature needs or dangerous goods details, along with the shipper’s signature certifying that everything on it is correct.

Two details on the form deserve a closer look.

The AWB number

Every AWB carries an 11-digit number, and everyone uses it to follow the shipment. The first three digits are the airline’s prefix, the next seven are a serial number, and the last digit is a check digit that helps catch typing mistakes. To get the check digit, you divide the serial number by 7 and keep the remainder. A serial number of 1234567, for example, leaves a remainder of 5, so the full number is the airline’s prefix followed by 12345675.

Chargeable weight

The airline bills on chargeable weight, which is the larger of the cargo’s actual weight and its volumetric weight. Volumetric weight turns the size of a box into a weight. Under IATA’s standard, you multiply the length, width, and height in centimeters and divide by 6,000. That way, a big, light box is billed for the space it takes up on the plane and not for what it weighs on the scale.

A paper AWB also comes as a set of copies. The Montreal Convention, the international treaty on air carriage, requires three originals, one for the airline, one for the consignee, and one for the shipper. IATA’s forms add more copies for others in the chain, at least eight in all.

Where it’s used

Any business that ships by air uses AWBs, especially when the cargo is urgent or valuable. Electronics, auto and industrial spare parts, medicines, fresh food, and online orders are common examples.

The people who touch it are:

1. Shippers and exporters: Shippers and exporters supply the shipment details and sign the certification, so they are responsible for getting the cargo information right.

2. Freight forwarders: Freight forwarders book space, issue house AWBs, and often fill in the master AWB as the airline’s agent.

3. Airlines and ground handlers: Airlines issue the AWB numbers and carry the cargo under the AWB’s terms, and ground handlers weigh the cargo and check it against the AWB at both airports.

4. Customs brokers: Customs brokers use the AWB number to file import entries and declarations.

5. Consignees: Consignees collect the cargo, sign the delivery receipt, and are the first to see any damage.

6. Finance and accounts payable teams: Finance teams match airline and forwarder invoices to the AWB number.

Inside a manufacturer or a logistics company, the AWB usually lands on the operations team, which books and tracks the shipment, and on the finance team, which pays the freight invoice and works out the landed cost.

The AWB starts at booking and stays in play until the last invoice or claim is settled. Its number also reaches customs before the plane lands, so customs can look at the shipment before it arrives.

How it’s used

Booking and issuing

The shipper or its forwarder books space with an airline, and an AWB number is assigned from the airline’s stock or generated electronically. The shipper supplies the consignee, the cargo description, the pieces, the weights and dimensions, the declared values, the payment terms, and any special handling needs. The AWB is then issued on paper or as an e-AWB.

Consolidating, if needed

Forwarders often combine cargo from several shippers into one booking, called a consolidation, to get better rates. The forwarder issues a house AWB (HAWB) to each shipper and books the whole load under one master AWB (MAWB) with the airline. On the master, the forwarder usually appears as the shipper and its partner at the destination as the consignee, and when the cargo lands, that partner splits the load and releases each house AWB to its owner.

Accepting and flying

At the origin airport, the handler weighs and measures the cargo, checks it against the AWB, and screens it for security. If the numbers do not match, the AWB is corrected at this point. The airline then lists the cargo by AWB number and sends status updates as it moves, so the airline, the forwarder, and the shipper can all follow it by the same 11-digit number.

Clearing customs

In the United States, the airline, or another eligible filer such as a forwarder, sends the AWB number to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through its air manifest system, called Air AMS, before the plane arrives (19 CFR 122.48a). A second filing, Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS), goes in before the cargo is loaded abroad, and its AWB number must match the one in the Air AMS filing (19 CFR 122.48b). ACAS uses the house AWB number when there is one. CBP’s Enhanced ACAS rule took effect on November 21, 2025 and asks for more data per shipment, with full enforcement now set for May 1, 2027.

If CBP does not receive the house information for a consolidation, it can place a hold on the master record, which can delay everything on it.

Delivery, claims, and billing

After customs releases the cargo and any destination charges are paid, the airline hands it to the named consignee, who signs the delivery receipt. The consignee should write any damage on that receipt, because under the Montreal Convention, accepting cargo without a complaint counts as evidence that it arrived in good condition.

The airline’s liability is capped at 26 Special Drawing Rights (SDR) per kilogram, about $35 by ICAO’s 2024 estimate, unless the shipper declares a higher value. An SDR is a unit the International Monetary Fund uses so that international limits can be set in one currency. A written complaint is due within 14 days of receiving damaged cargo and within 21 days for a delay, under the Montreal Convention. For cargo that never arrives, IATA’s AWB conditions of contract allow 120 days from the date the AWB was issued.

Finance then checks the invoices against the AWB. The checks include chargeable weight against actual and volumetric weight, the rate, the surcharges, prepaid against collect terms, and whether the same AWB was billed twice.

In practice, the hard part is not air cargo itself. It is matching the AWB number across the booking, the airline invoice, the forwarder invoice, and the customs entry, which usually live in different places.

Example

Picture a 200-person packaging equipment maker in Columbus, Ohio. A production line goes down, and the company needs a replacement gearbox from its supplier in Germany by Friday. The supplier packs the gearbox in a crate that weighs 150 kg and measures 120 × 100 × 100 cm. That is 1,200,000 cubic centimeters, and dividing by 6,000 gives a volumetric weight of 200 kg.

The AWB shows 150 kg gross weight, but the airline bills 200 kg as chargeable weight. The supplier’s forwarder issues a house AWB to the supplier and books the crate under a master AWB on a flight to Chicago O’Hare. Before the plane lands, the airline or the forwarder reports both numbers to CBP. The shipment moves freight collect, so the freight invoice lands with the Ohio company’s accounts payable team, which checks that it bills 200 kg and not a kilogram more.

Visual anatomy

Where the key fields sit on a standard IATA air waybill. The 11-digit AWB number is printed in several corners of the form.

Types

AWBs are sorted in two ways, by who issues them and by whose form they are printed on.

Master air waybill (MAWB)

A master air waybill is the AWB that covers a whole shipment from one airport to another, and it carries the 11-digit airline number. The airline issues it, or a forwarder fills it in as the airline’s agent. Airlines and customs systems use it to track and report the cargo, so it is the number you quote when you call the airline. Say a forwarder fills a pallet with boxes from six exporters. It books the whole pallet under one MAWB, and the airline sees one shipment.

House air waybill (HAWB)

A house air waybill is the AWB that a forwarder issues to one shipper inside a consolidation. It is the contract between the forwarder and that shipper, and the forwarder numbers it with its own system, so it does not follow the airline’s 11-digit format. Shippers, importers, and their customs brokers lean on the house number because it points to their boxes and not the whole pallet. In the six-exporter example, each exporter gets its own HAWB for its own boxes, and all six HAWBs sit under the same MAWB.

Airline AWB

An airline AWB is a form that already shows the airline’s name, head office address, and AWB number. Airlines give these forms, or electronic numbers, to the cargo agents and forwarders who issue AWBs for them. It is the standard choice when a shipment is booked with one specific airline, such as a manufacturer sending a pallet through a single carrier’s cargo office.

Neutral AWB

A neutral AWB is a form with the same layout as an airline AWB but with no airline details printed on it. Forwarders use it because they book space with many airlines, and one neutral form lets them fill in each airline’s name and number as needed. The rules around it are strict, since IATA says that changing the airline code, serial number, airline name, or head office address on a neutral AWB makes it void.

Variations

Paper AWB vs. e-AWB

A paper AWB is a printed set of copies, and an e-AWB is the same contract sent as electronic messages between the forwarder and the airline. To use the e-AWB, a forwarder and an airline sign IATA’s multilateral agreement (Resolution 672) once, and it starts working at an airport when the airline sends an activation notice. Since January 1, 2019, the e-AWB has been the default on trade lanes where it is allowed. Paper still turns up where a country’s law or customs rules require it, and the airline marks the shipment ECC when no paper travels with it or ECP when a paper copy is printed to meet local rules. Brazil, for example, became the first country in the Americas to waive the physical AWB requirement, in 2025.

AWB vs. Ocean bill of lading

An air waybill and an ocean bill of lading differ mainly on title. A negotiable ocean bill of lading is a document of title, so the carrier releases the cargo only to whoever presents an original, which is why banks treat it as security. An AWB gives you no such control, because the airline hands the cargo to the consignee named on it. The shipper can still change instructions or stop the cargo while it is in transit, but only before the cargo arrives and the consignee’s right to delivery begins. That is why exporters who ship by air usually protect themselves with payment terms, such as payment in advance or a letter of credit, and not by holding the AWB.

AWB vs. Sea waybill

An air waybill and a sea waybill do almost the same job. Both are non-negotiable receipts and contracts, and in both cases the carrier delivers to the named consignee without anyone surrendering an original. The difference is the mode of transport and the law behind it, since an AWB covers air freight under the Montreal Convention and a sea waybill covers ocean freight under maritime law. A company that ships ocean freight to its own overseas branch, where nobody needs to trade the document, would choose a sea waybill.

AWB vs. GST e-way bill (India)

An air waybill and a GST e-way bill sound alike, but they do different jobs. An e-way bill is a tax record that a registered business generates on the government’s GST portal when it moves goods inside India, generally when the goods are worth more than ₹50,000. It is not a contract of carriage. For a shipment by air, the AWB number goes into the e-way bill as the transport document number, and the supplier or the buyer fills in that part.

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