IATA has signed an MOU with theUN Universal Postal Union to facilitategreater co-operation between theairlines and postal services to furtherstandardise practices and electronicdata interchange message standards.UPU director general Edouard Dayantold the IATA World Cargo Symposiumin Mexico that interconnectingthe airline and the postal sector’s EDInetworks was the key to improvingservice levels.

He said about 20 airlines exchangedEDI standard messages with more than30 postal operators, helping to reducecosts and increase efficiency.

Each year 437 billion postal itemsare processed globally. Within this total,5.6 billion are international, requiringairlift. Six billion parcels are also handledannually.

He called on postal service providersand the airlines to work togetheron security through an internationalairport review program and a mail lossanalysis system to identify weak linksby the UPU’s Postal Security ActionGroup.

– John Spiers