The Tracking Game: Why Air Cargo Visibility Went from "Call Us" to Real-Time

Here's a question that used to cost airlines money: "Where is my shipment?"

The answer was always the same: "Let me check. Call back in an hour. Or call our customer service line. Or wait for an email."

And so shippers would call. And wait on hold. And call again when the answer didn't match what they got the first time. And call the forwarder. And the forwarder would call the airline. And the airline would say "we're still checking."

Multiply that by thousands of shipments per day, and you had entire call centres built around answering one basic question: has it left yet?

For decades, this was the industry standard. You shipped a package. You got an air waybill number. Then you waited. And when you needed to know where it was, you called someone.

The information existed somewhere - the airline knew where their cargo was. The ground handler knew. Someone scanned it at the origin airport. Someone scanned it at the destination. But that information didn't flow to you in real-time. It flowed on paper. Or through email. Or you had to ask, and someone had to dig through systems to find the answer.

If your shipment hit an exception - a delay, a missed connection, customs holding it - you found out when you called to track it, not from a proactive alert. The airline didn't tell you. Your forwarder didn't know until they chased it. You'd discover the problem hours after it happened.

Call centres weren't a feature. They were a necessity. The industry built around the assumption that customers would need to call for updates. Constantly.

Meanwhile, UPS, FedEx, and DHL had already solved this problem for small packages.

In the 1990s, when the internet was still new, those carriers realized something: if you barcode everything and scan it at every handoff, you can tell your customer exactly where their package is in real-time. No phone call needed. Just enter the tracking number on a website.

By the 2000s, they'd built entire systems around this. Handheld scanners at every facility. Automated conveyor systems reading barcodes. Real-time databases. And customers could track their packages live. They could see it left the origin. They could see it hit the hub. They could see it left for delivery. They could get an alert the moment it was delivered.

No human intervention necessary. No call centre required.

Air cargo? Still asking people to call.

The gap was huge. And it had costs.

A 2023 report found that 78% of shippers are more likely to choose carriers offering advanced tracking capabilities. Yet most air cargo still didn't have it.

The fragmentation was the real killer. Airlines, ground handlers, freight forwarders, and equipment providers all generate data, but rarely in a format that can be exchanged in real time. Each stakeholder sees a part of the journey. No one sees the whole.

Operational teams routinely experience three choke points: mismatched manifest data between airlines and handlers, delayed customs messages, and manual document validation by forwarders. Each gap meant another phone call.

Even with advancements in technology, around 50% of businesses still lack complete visibility, with 20% still relying on manual tracking.

What changed was APIs and data aggregation.

Instead of waiting for each airline to build its own perfect tracking system (which many never did), platforms started pulling tracking data from multiple sources - airlines, ground handlers, third-party logistics providers - and consolidating it into one place.

EDI systems process data in batches at predefined intervals, sometimes hours or even days apart. APIs provide near real-time milestone updates, ensuring faster reactions to delays or disruptions.

Now a shipper can enter an air waybill number once and see where the cargo is across its entire journey. No phone call. No waiting. And APIs fill coverage gaps by pulling data from non-traditional sources like cargo handlers and third-party providers, offering comprehensive tracking even from smaller carriers who lack sophisticated systems.

But the real power is proactive alerts. Real-time tracking reduces manual follow-ups, minimises customer service escalations, and enables rapid response to disruptions like missed connections or customs holds. You don't have to call to find out your shipment is delayed. The system tells you.

This isn't just about convenience. Without structured air shipment tracking, lack of transparency increases operational uncertainty and slows decision-making across supply chains. Centralized tracking provides real-time insights that mitigate downstream risks and enable proactive decision-making.

When production schedules and warehouse staffing depend on accurate arrival forecasts, real-time tracking isn't a luxury. It's operational necessity.

And it changes how problems get solved. Instead of teams learning about disruptions after planned arrival times have passed, real-time tracking provides advance notice, allowing them to adjust onward transportation, notify stakeholders, and update delivery timelines proactively.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is pushing toward a common data standard through its ONE Record programme, designed to replace fragmented messaging with a single, interoperable data model. Major carriers like Lufthansa Cargo, Qatar Airways Cargo, Emirates, and Cathay Cargo are advancing these efforts.

Some platforms now aggregate tracking data from 190+ airlines with access to 32+ milestones throughout a shipment's journey. You can see everything from booking confirmation to final delivery, all in one dashboard.

The shift is toward continuous operational awareness, where cargo positions and statuses are continuously updated in real time, reducing dependency on manual reporting and removing delays caused by legacy communication methods.

This isn't perfect yet. Handoffs remain challenging. Different systems still don't talk perfectly. But the direction is clear: visibility is becoming standard, not an exception.

The call centres didn't disappear because tracking got better. They disappeared because companies realized that proactive, transparent, real-time information makes humans less necessary for status updates.

Instead of a shipper calling to ask "where is it," the system tells them without being asked. Instead of a forwarder chasing the airline for updates, the data flows automatically. Instead of exceptions being discovered after the fact, alerts trigger immediately.

It's not revolutionary. It's just honest. You shipped it. You should know where it is.