On a consolidated master air waybill, the Nature and Quantity of Goods box often holds a single line instead of a commodity: “consolidation as per attached manifest”. It is the correct entry for a consolidated master. It tells everyone handling the master that this air waybill covers a consolidation, several customers’ shipments that a forwarder has grouped under one master, and that the description of what is actually inside sits on the attached manifest of house air waybills.
You will see the same idea written a few ways: “CONSOL AS PER ATTACHED MANIFEST”, “CONSOLIDATION AS PER ATTACHED LIST”, “CONSOLIDATED CARGO AS PER ATTACHED MANIFEST”. They all mean the same thing. The master is the forwarder’s contract with the airline for the whole load; the goods detail lives one level down, house by house.
Why the master doesn’t name the goods
A master air waybill in a consolidation is issued by the airline (or its agent) to the forwarder. The shipper on the master is usually the forwarder at origin, and the consignee is usually its partner agent at destination, the one that breaks the consolidation down and delivers each house shipment. From the airline’s point of view, the master is one shipment of many pieces moving forwarder to forwarder.
Inside it, though, there might be machine parts for one importer, garments for another and printed matter for a third. Each has its own shipper, consignee, pieces, weight and goods description. Squeezing all of that into one box on the master would be unreadable and would mix data from different contracts. So the master points to the list instead, and each house air waybill carries its own description. If the house air waybill itself is unfamiliar, how the house waybill relates to the cargo manifest covers it.
What the attached manifest contains
The “attached manifest” is the consolidation manifest, sometimes called the house manifest or the cargo manifest for that master. It lists every house air waybill inside the consolidation, usually with:
- The house air waybill number, the forwarder’s own reference for each shipment.
- Shipper and consignee for each house: the real exporter and importer, not the forwarders.
- Pieces and weight per house.
- A goods description per house, specific enough for customs.
- Origin and destination of each house shipment.
Forwarders often print it on their own layout, titled “Air Freight Manifest” or “Consolidation Manifest”, with the master itself as the first row and the houses below. For the paper side in more depth, see what a cargo manifest is.
With , you can capture the consolidated master and each house air waybill under it, one house per document, each with its own goods description and linked back to its master: automatically if the master is already in your workspace, or in one click once it arrives.
Start hereThe electronic version: FWB and FHL
With e-AWB, the paper attachment is replaced by messages. The master travels as an FWB, and IATA’s e-AWB guidance lists two identifiers for its goods description: NG for non-consolidated cargo and NC for consolidated cargo. Some guidance lets forwarders use either, so a consolidation may still arrive with “CONSOL” in the NG line. The house list travels as a separate message, the FHL, which IATA’s Cargo-IMP standard names the Consolidation List (XFHL in Cargo-XML). Where the carrier requires it, the forwarder sends both before the cargo is tendered. FHL vs FWB explains how the two fit together.
One practical detail: the first line of the goods description can feed the airline’s flight manifest, and some e-AWB guidance caps that first line at 15 characters. The word “CONSOLIDATION” fits; the full phrase may be cut short by the time it reaches the flight manifest.
The numbers still have to add up
“As per attached manifest” moves the goods description to the houses, but it doesn’t make the master’s figures optional. The master’s total pieces and gross weight describe the whole consolidation, so the house pieces and weights on the manifest should be consistent with them. When they aren’t, someone has to work out whether a house is missing from the list, a weight was keyed wrong, or a house belongs to a different master. That check is far cheaper at capture than after a customs filing has gone in.
Special cargo inside a consolidation
The generic wording doesn’t cover goods that need special treatment. Dangerous goods in particular still have to be declared, and carriers set their own rules on whether and how they accept them in a consolidation. IATA’s e-AWB guidance for Bangalore, for example, covers forwarders who send the original dangerous goods declaration in the document pouch: for a consolidation that mixes dangerous and non-dangerous goods, they add a statement such as “XX Packages Dangerous Goods as per attached DGD” in the FWB’s OSI or SSR field. The carrier’s acceptance rules are the ones that apply.
What it means for capturing AWB data
For anyone reading air waybills into a system, by hand or by software, a consolidated master breaks a few easy assumptions:
- The goods box isn’t a commodity. “Consolidation as per attached manifest” is the correct content for the master. A capture tool that expects one commodity and flags it as missing, or tries to classify it, creates noise.
- It is still a master. A master that mentions house numbers or the attached manifest is not a house air waybill, even though it talks about houses.
- The detail is in the houses. Each house air waybill needs its own goods description captured in full. “CONSOL” is the master’s line, never a house’s.
- Houses need their master. A house without a readable master number can’t be matched to its consolidation, so it needs a human look.
- Master figures don’t belong on a house. The master’s pieces, weight and goods describe the whole consolidation, and its shipper and consignee are forwarders, so copying them into a house’s own fields to fill a gap is wrong.
AWBGuru is built around those rules. It captures the Nature and Quantity of Goods box verbatim, consolidation notes included, and treats a master that says “consolidation as per attached manifest” as a master. House air waybills are captured with their own goods description, one house per document, and a house is linked to its master automatically when that master is already in your workspace and the match is unambiguous; otherwise, once the master is uploaded, the reviewer imports it from the house’s review page; when the number points to one master, its page also lists the houses waiting for it so they can be imported together. Only fields that carry over cleanly are filled in from the master: the master number, the routing, and the consolidator as the house’s issuing forwarder. A house whose master reference is missing or fails the check digit goes to review. For the field-by-field view of the master itself, see AWB data explained.