EL-AL : new charges will be applied for cargo manifest transmission to the u.s. Customs

The cargo division of “EL-AL” israel airlines advised the israeli air cargo community that as from 11/08/2004 , the company will apply a “manifest transmission charge” of us$0.85 per house airway bill (hawb) and us$1.35 for typing hawb.
 
The newly applied charges published by the cargo division on july 5th , is the result of the recentely enforced u.s. Customs regulation requesting airlines to transmit manifest data 4 hours prior to planes landing at a u.s. Airport.
 
The announcement was followd by a fierce opposition from the israeli freight forwarding community whoes chairman  mr. Amir shani, wrote a letter opposing EL-AL’s demands.
In his letter mr. Shani called upon the cargo devision to re-evaluate its stand and to reverse its totally unacceptable decision.
 
Mr. Shani reiterated that “EL-AL” had never advised the israeli electronic trade board about its wish to apply the charges. On the contrary, “el al” had always presented the case that it was in favour of direct electronic connection between the company and the freight forwarding community in order to save costs. El al, according to mr. Shani advocated this line of business in order to avoid having to transmit cargo manifests via the costly “tradevision” system.
 
In his letter mr. Shani emphasized that according to information received by the forwarding community other airlines who offer freight services to the u.s.a have so far not advised any changes in their charging schedules nor have they advised anything about electronic transmission charges.
 
Mr. Danny shapira head of EL-AL’s cargo devision was reluctant to reply to shani’s accusations, informing our reporter that the company had invested a great deal of money to adapt its computerized systems to the standard set up by the u.s customs.
EL-AL will continue to invest in order increase its efficiency. EL-AL, according to shapira, regards the new charges as temporary and it will do its utmost to have them written off as early as possible.