Your first air shipment, end to end

This tutorial takes one air export from nothing to done — the same arc as the ocean tutorial, with the three things air changes: the paper (air waybills instead of bills of lading), the math (chargeable weight on the 1:6000 volumetric divisor), and the speed (days, not weeks).

The paper, stated up front: the MAWB (Master Air Waybill) is the airline's contract with you, the forwarder — it belongs on a master shipment. The HAWB (House Air Waybill) is the document you issue to your customer — it belongs on a house. A direct file for one customer still gets its house-level air waybill; a consolidation gets one MAWB for the flight and one HAWB per customer inside it.

Step 0 — create or select the customer

Same as ever: everything hangs off an account. Open Accounts, and if the customer, shipper, or consignee is missing, Add Account them first (see the Accounts reference).

Step 1 — create the quote (and watch the chargeable weight)

1. Open Quotes and select New Quote.
2. In the mode step, pick Air Freight ("Fast delivery for time-sensitive cargo") and Export, then continue.
3. Fill the quote details: Customer, Origin, Destination, the parties, and the cargo — Pieces, Gross Weight (kg), Volume (CBM).
4. Now the air math. The Chargeable Weight (kg) is not the scale weight: air divides the volume by the 1:6000 volumetric divisor (cm³ ÷ 6000 = volumetric kg, the same as 167 kg per CBM), takes the greater of gross and volumetric weight, and rounds up. A pallet of 120 × 100 × 100 cm weighing 150 kg is 1.2 CBM → 200 kg volumetric → 200 kg chargeable. Ocean would have rated the same pallet W/M (1 CBM vs 1,000 kg — 1.2 revenue tons). The full contrast lives in Master, house & chargeable weight.
5. Select Create Quote, price it on the Charges tab — air freight is typically rated per kg on the chargeable weight — then Send to Customer and, on confirmation, Accept Quote.

Step 2 — convert the quote to an air shipment

1. On the quote, open the header menu (⋯) and select Convert to Shipment.
2. Set Transport Mode to Air Shipment. Keep Shipment Type as Direct for a single customer; choose Consolidation and then the Shipment Class (Master or House) when building a consol.
3. Select Create — commodities move over, charges are copied, and the quote locks as Converted.

Step 3 — references and documents: MAWB & HAWB

1. On the shipment's Overview, the References section carries the air identifiers: MAWB, HAWB, and Flight (edit adds Aircraft Type and Airline Code). Enter the HAWB number for your house — and the MAWB number once the airline books the flight. Linbis enforces the split: a master air shipment requires its MAWB number, a house requires its HAWB, before leaving Draft.
2. Open the Forms tab. The air paper lives here: Master Air Waybill (MAWB) (with the MAWB Set (IATA 600a, 12-copy) variant), House Air Waybill (HAWB), Air Cargo Manifest, Arrival Notice (Air), and the AWB label set for the pieces.
3. Generate your house air waybill, check the live preview, Download or Print, and send it with Send Update as in Generate and send shipment documents.

Step 4 — charges and invoice

The Charges tab works exactly as on ocean: income side (what you bill) against expense side (what the airline bills you), profit tracked live — with air freight lines rated on the chargeable weight from step 1. Then Generate Invoice → Create Draft Invoice → Post Invoice, per Issue an invoice from charges.

Step 5 — track it to Delivered

The status timeline is the same canonical flow — Booked, Picked Up, At Origin, In Transit, At Destination, Out for Delivery, Delivered — it just runs in days. The routing shows the Flight #; advance the status as the flight departs and lands, and close the file at Delivered.

Where to go next

• Master, house & chargeable weight — the 1:6000 and W/M math, side by side.
• Consolidate house shipments under a master — several HAWBs under one MAWB.
• Your first ocean shipment, end to end — the same flow at sea level.