Meaning of "to / By First Carrier / by" in Air Waybill (AWB) (Direct vs. Transshipment)

Question

We are importing via air freight from an overseas export location to Korea. From the importer's perspective under FOB terms, the schedule provided by the forwarder was not a non-stop flight, but a 1-stop flight (transshipment, T/S). However, in the AWB from the Shipping Advice received from the exporter after the "On Board" status, the fact of transshipment is not confirmed. Is it common for the fact of transshipment not to be identifiable through the AWB alone, even in a T/S case?

tflow_expert · Answer

1. AWB's to, By First Carrier: Under the Airport of Departure on the AWB, there are "to" and "By First Carrier" fields. "to" indicates the destination of the aircraft departing from the Airport of Departure (e.g., ICN is the IATA 3-letter code for Incheon Airport), and "By First Carrier" indicates the airline that operates that aircraft (e.g., OZ is the IATA code for Asiana Airlines). The Airport of Destination is the destination airport designated by the shipper at the time of booking. If there is a direct flight between the departure and destination airports, the first "to" airport will match the Airport of Destination. 2. Repetition of to/by during Transshipment (T/S): There are cases where the By First Carrier airline does not transport the cargo directly to the destination airport, but instead transships it to another aircraft midway (either because there is no direct carrier or because a transshipment schedule is chosen due to freight rates). In this case, the first "to" airport differs from the Airport of Destination; after transshipment, the second "to" following "By First Carrier" will match the Airport of Destination, and the "by" following that will contain the airline code that transports the cargo to the final destination. For a 2-stop flight, "to, by, to, by, to, by" will all be listed, and the third "to" will match the destination airport. 3. AWBs for transshipment in practice: In principle, if there is a transshipment, "to/by" should be recorded as described above. However, in practice, "to/by" is often not recorded on the AWB even for transshipments, which can make it difficult to determine whether a shipment is direct or transshipped based solely on the AWB.

Meaning of "to / By First Carrier / by" in Air Waybill (AWB) (Direct vs. Transshipment)

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