Standards

AWB data explained: every field on an air waybill and what it means

An air waybill is one page of boxes. Each box is a field with a defined meaning, a format, and a place it ends up downstream. This is the reference for all of them.

Sep 9, 2026· 7 min read· Reference

turns air waybills into clean, validated shipment records — no keying, no OCR clean-up.

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AWB data is the set of structured fields printed on an air waybill: the 11-digit AWB number, the shipper, consignee and agent, the routing and flights, the piece count and weights, the description of goods, the charges, and the handling and execution details. It is the information a carrier, a forwarder and a customs system each use to move, bill and clear one air shipment.

An air waybill (AWB) is the transport document and contract of carriage for goods moving by air, laid out to the IATA standard form so the same box means the same thing on every carrier's paper. A Master Air Waybill (MAWB) is the forwarder's contract with the airline; a House Air Waybill (HAWB) is the forwarder's contract with each shipper, and several house bills under one master make a consolidation (see MAWB vs HAWB). The field set below is the same on both; only the parties differ.

The AWB number

The AWB number is 11 digits in a 3–7–1 layout: a 3-digit airline prefix, a 7-digit serial, and one check digit. The prefix identifies the issuing carrier (a carrier can hold more than one). The check digit equals the serial modulo 7, so the number can be verified by arithmetic alone.

mod-7 check · 999-57204932

# 999 is a stand-in prefix, not a real carrier
prefix = 999   serial = 5720493   check = 2
5720493 mod 7 = 2      ✓ equals the printed check digit → valid

On the form the number is printed top-right as the prefix, a dash, then the 8 digits of serial plus check: 999-57204932. Systems usually store the prefix and the 8-digit block separately. A misread or transposed digit almost always changes the remainder, so a bad number is caught before it reaches a carrier; the rule and its limits are covered in Reading the IATA check digit.

With , you can turn every field on your waybills into clean, structured data.

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Field-by-field reference

Grouped the way the form is laid out. The tag on the right is the usual printed format; the note flags what breaks when a field is misread.

Parties · who ships, who receives, who issued it

Shipper's name and address Full block — company, address, phone, contact, often an EIN. Truncation drops the contact or tax ID customs needs.free text

Consignee's name and address Receiving party — phone, email, notify text. Who the destination handler calls.free text

Issuing carrier's agent name and city The forwarder/agent that issued the waybill, not the airline — routinely confused.free text

Agent's IATA code Numeric IATA code (01-1-0070/0016). Easily swapped with the Account No. beside it.numeric code

Account No. Agent's account number, beside the IATA code. Often blank.optional

Reference number Optional shipping-information box. Often blank.optional

Routing · where it departs, where it goes, on which flights

Airport of departure City name or 3-letter IATA code. Mapping a city to the wrong code changes the origin.city / IATA

To / by first carrier First transit/transfer point (often a hub), carrier beside it. Not the final destination.IATA code

Airport of destination Final destination airport. Never the same code as departure.IATA code

Requested flight/date Flight number(s) + date as printed (KL628/15 13-Nov), two if the routing has two legs. The 2-letter code should match the carrier owning the AWB prefix.flight + date

Goods · what is shipped, how much, how heavy

No. of pieces RCP Total piece count, positive integer.integer

Gross weight Scale weight + unit (K/L). That lone K/L gets mistaken for the rate class.number + K/L

Chargeable weight Greater of gross and volumetric weight; what's billed. Never below gross. See chargeable vs gross weight.decimal

Dimensions Package dimensions as printed (14x10x13 IN x 1). Input to volumetric weight.text

Nature and quantity of goods Description box verbatim — commodity, part numbers, notes like CONSOLIDATION AS PER ATTACHED MANIFEST. Truncating loses the consolidation signal.free text

HS code Tariff code, 6/8/10 digits.6/8/10 digits

Commodity item no. Commodity item code (GCR or numeric). A multi-letter code belongs here, not in Rate Class.code

Rate class Single letter (M, N, Q, C, R, S, U, E, X, K, P, B, Y). Neither GCR nor the K/L unit is a rate class.1 letter

Charges · what the shipment costs and who pays

Currency 3-letter ISO 4217 (USD).ISO 4217

Rate/charge Unit rate per kg for the line; not the total.decimal

Total (rate line) Rate × chargeable weight for the line. Distinct from the Prepaid/Collect totals.decimal

Declared value for carriage Amount, or NVD (no value declared).amount / NVD

Declared value for customs Amount, or NCV (no customs value).amount / NCV

Amount of insurance Amount, or XXX/NIL when none requested.amount / NIL

Weight charge Freight charge, in the Prepaid or Collect column.amount

Valuation charge Charge for declared value, if any.amount

Tax Tax amount, if any.amount

Other charges Due-agent and due-carrier coded lines with amounts.coded lines

Total prepaid / Total collect Bottom-line totals. One is usually blank.amount

Charge boxes are often legitimately blank, notably on a consolidation master where charges settle on the house bills. An empty charge field is not by itself an error.

Handling · instructions, accounting, execution

Handling information SPH codes, NOEEI/AES/EEI export statements, notify instructions — verbatim. Regulatory text lives here.free text

Accounting information Payment method or accounting notes for the carrier. Often blank.optional

Executed on (date) at (place) Issuance date + place beside the carrier signature (13-Dec-24 MIAMI).date + place

Signatures Shipper or agent; issuing carrier or agent. Electronic on an e-AWB.signature

Where AWB data flows

AWB data starts life on paper or as a PDF: the forwarder's system prints the form, the parties sign it, and copies travel with the cargo. The same fields then have to reach carrier and customs systems, which is where capture comes in: reading the boxes off the document into one structured record. That record is what gets encoded as an FWB message, the IATA Cargo-IMP message that carries air waybill data to a carrier's system. Two revisions circulate, FWB/16 and FWB/17, and the receiving party decides which it accepts; Cargo-XML's XFWB is the newer encoding of the same message, still mid-migration. The carrier builds its own AWB record from that message; customs consumes the same data through the manifest and the declaration.

An electronic air waybill (e-AWB) replaces the paper contract with the electronic record: the FWB message becomes the contract of carriage, and a paper AWB need not accompany the shipment. IATA made the e-AWB the default on enabled trade lanes in 2019, though paper still circulates where a party, a lane or a customs authority requires it. For the data itself nothing changes; the e-AWB shifts which copy is authoritative, not which fields exist.

Common AWB data errors

Most bad waybill data is not illegible. It is legible and internally inconsistent, which is why the fields are checked against each other rather than read in isolation:

Check digit fails. The serial mod 7 does not equal the printed check digit; usually a transposed or misread digit.
Prefix and flight disagree. The prefix belongs to one carrier and the 2-letter code at the front of the flight number to another. Carriers hold prefix sets, so this is a membership check, not equality.
Routing that cannot be right. An airport code not in the IATA location table, or a departure equal to the destination.
Chargeable weight below gross. Impossible by definition, since chargeable is the greater of gross and volumetric. Almost always a misread or transposed value.
Format slips. A rate class that is not one valid letter (the K/L unit taken as a rate class), an HS code with the wrong digit count, a currency that is not ISO 4217, a piece count that is not a positive integer, or a blank shipper, consignee or gross weight.

Frequently asked

What is AWB data?

The structured fields printed on an air waybill: the 11-digit AWB number, the shipper, consignee and agent, routing and flights, pieces and weights, the goods description, the charges, and the handling and execution details. It is what carriers, forwarders and customs use to move, bill and clear one air shipment.

What is the AWB number format?

Eleven digits in a 3-7-1 layout: a 3-digit airline prefix, a 7-digit serial and a check digit equal to the serial modulo 7, printed as prefix, dash, then the 8 digits of serial plus check. Example: 999-57204932, where 5720493 mod 7 = 2 (999 is a stand-in prefix).

What is the difference between gross and chargeable weight on an AWB?

Gross weight is what the shipment weighs on the scale. Chargeable weight is the greater of gross and volumetric (dimensional) weight, and it is what the carrier bills on. It can equal gross weight but never be lower.

What is an e-AWB?

An electronic air waybill. The electronic record, carried as an FWB message, is the contract of carriage, so a paper AWB does not have to travel with the goods. The fields are the same as on paper; what changes is which copy is authoritative.

Who fills in AWB data?

Usually the freight forwarder, acting as the issuing carrier's agent, from the shipper's instructions; a shipper can also complete it directly. The carrier or its agent then executes it with a date, place and signature.

Is the data on a house air waybill the same as on a master?

The layout is the same; the parties and level of detail differ. A master (MAWB) names the forwarder and the airline and, on a consolidation, describes the bundled load as a unit. Each house bill (HAWB) names one shipper and consignee and describes only that shipper's goods.

How AWBGuru handles AWB data

AWBGuru captures these fields from a PDF, scan or photo into one structured record, then runs the checks above (check digit, prefix and flight agreement, airport codes, chargeable versus gross, format rules) and routes anything that fails to review instead of passing it downstream. Extracted values are a starting point for your own verification, not a substitute for it.

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