Cathay Cargo is widening its sales distribution by placing its rates and availability in Kuehne+Nagel’s own booking system through a two-phase application programming interface (API) pilot scheme.

The service will be available in the Americas and later on in Europe and will allow users direct access to space, rates, and instant confirmation on Cathay Cargo’s inventory through the forwarder’s transport management system.

This is the first time that the airline has enabled bookings to be available from a freight forwarder’s host system, which is part of Cathay’s wider digital strategy to improve operations and customer experience. It plans to make the service available to other global accounts this year.