The US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has introduced uniform regulations for all shipment of goods to the USA and all transit shipments via the USA.
These concern in particular the completeness of details regarding dispatcher, consignee and contents. These details must be sent in advance by electronic means. We will do this for you in each and every case. Any changes to details as a result of partial delivery or split shipments must also be forwarded.

It is the airline who will be held responsible for the transfer of a complete set of information at master air waybill and house air waybill level.

Lufthansa Cargo has therefore decided to transmit all necessary house air waybill data themselves. This applies for all consolidated shipments (shipments consisting of one or more house air waybills) and non-consolidated shipments (simple air waybills). The final composition of a shipment is only known at the time of freight acceptance, as changes can occur due to split or part shipments. 

New: Piece Control 

Some consolidations have a discrepancy in piece-count between the MAWB and the sum of HAWBs, this usually happens in case of pre-consolidated shipments or cover packages. In these cases, i. e. if the number of pieces on the MAWB is smaller then the sum of the pieces of all associated HAWBs, the MAWB has to have the SLAC (= shipper's load and count).

Lufthansa Cargo will not open any cover package and will not check the piece-count of overpacked pieces. The shipper is fully responsible for the accuracy and sufficiency of the data and the documents.

Build up Units (BUPs) need to have the actual boarded weight and actual pieces included, so that LCAG can still transmit necessary data in case the shipment is not flown on one flight. Since CBP does not allow a shipment with calculated weight, we require that forwarders include the actual weight and pieces on each BUP manifest.

The required measures of the electronic manifest data transmission cause increased handling and system costs for air carriers. Lufthansa Cargo, like other carriers, has therefore been forced to pass on a share of these costs, and introduced a US Customs Fee. 

LCAG introduced different fee levels, which distinguish between different transmission methods for the data. 

1. Electronical data transmission using FHL2 messages via Traxon 

All HAWB data that is sent to us using this method will be charged a fee of € 1,- (or equivalent in local currency) per HAWB. The total amount per Master has to be inserted on the Master Airwaybill, as Other Charges with the Charge Code "CG". 

2. Manual provision with paper copies of the HAWBs 

For HAWBs, which must be manually entered a fee of € 12,- (or equivalent in local currency) per HAWB applies. The total amount per Master has to be inserted on the Master Airwaybill, as Other Charges with the Charge Code "CC". 

3. Direct data transmission to AMS by forwarder 

If you as a forwarder are certified to transmit data directly to AMS, it is nevertheless necessary that LCAG also receives all necessary information in electronic form, as we must also transmit this information to AMS. However, LCAG recognizes this effort on behalf of the forwarder and does not apply the fee in these cases, as long as LCAG also receives the data electronically via FHL2 messages. If HAWB data has to be entered manually, LCAG will nevertheless charge EUR 12,- for these cases. An "AGT Code" needs to be marked on the Master AWB in the field "Handling Information" in order to be exempted from the fee. The wording should be: - "House Information transmitted by: (the ABI filer code or the FIRMS code)" or - "AGT: (the ABI filer code or the FIRMS code)" This wording indicates that the forwarder reports the house waybill details directly to Air AMS. The ABI filer code or the FIRMS code is a special confirmed code from US Customs/CBP. 

4. No charges for freight which transits the US... 

but has a final destination outside the US, will not be charged with this fee. 

LCAG needs to receive a second set of documents and preferably electronic HAWB information for all flights with either final destination or first port of entry in the USA. Lufthansa Cargo has made three methods available for you to transmit this house information: 

1. Electronically with the use of FHL2 messages. This is the preferred channel of Lufthansa Cargo. These messages must be transmitted and received prior to shipment acceptance. 

2. Manually by paper documents. If your inhouse system is not able to exchange FHL2 messages then LCAG will do this manually for you. 

3. AMS-certified third parties can report directly to the US-authority, these parties will be held liable for the accuracy and sufficiency of the reported data. The AGT-code gives proof of the AMS-certification to the carrier, so it has to be mentioned on each MAWB in the field. 

All methods of transmitting information require that the following documents be presented at the time of freight acceptance for each consolidation: 

1. A copy of the Master Air Waybill document 

2. A copy of the detailed consolidation manifest. If a detailed consolidation manifest cannot be provided, a copy of each house air waybill will have to be included in the additional pouch. 

3. A consolidation manifest per pallet if the consolidation is palletized on several pallets. 

Commodity Descriptions need to be in English and need to be very specific in nature. "Spare parts" does not suffice, when in fact the goods are "Aircraft Turbine Screws". Please assure to be very specific in your description. Since CBP regulations are currently not very specific, LCAG will be very strict in terms of preciseness of descriptions. Lufthansa Cargo will reserve the right to deny acceptance to cargo which is not described according to AMS requirements! In attached list, you find the acceptable ways of specifying the products of the consol shipment which have to be considered on the MasterAWB as well as in each HAWB. For a consolidated shipment, the descriptions need to be very specific on HAWB level, while the Master AWB needs to have "Consolidation per attached Manifest" as a description. 

Personal effects need to be accompanied by a separate packing list, which documents (in English) the contents in a readable manner. These documents must be enclosed in a clearly labeled separate “Customs” pouch of documents, which will be checked at the time of acceptance of the freight. Lufthansa Cargo has the right to deny acceptance of the shipments if one of the required documents is missing. Since many routing may require a US transit, Lufthansa Cargo requires to receive this information also for some destinations outside the US. The following list shows for which routings these requirements concerning a second set of documents also applies: 

From               To 

Europe, Africa Tokyo (TYO, NRT) 
Europe, Africa Osaka (OSA, KIX) 
Europe, Africa Santiago de Chile (SCL) 
Europe, Africa Montevideo (MVD) 
Europe, Africa Quito (UIO) 
Europe, Africa Bogotá (BOG) 
Europe, Africa Lima (LIM) 
Tokyo (TYO, NRT) worldwide 
Osaka (OSA, KIX) worldwide 
Santiago de Chile (SCL) worldwide 

For flights to/from South America (SCL, MVD, UIO, BOG and LIM), please assure that second set of documents is attached. These destinations usually travel through US territory (Miami), therefore LCAG will only accept consol shipments to these destinations if they are AMS-ready. If a shipment has several Master AWBs with several HAWBs under one Master ("Multimaster" shipments) LCAG requires that HAWB data for these shipments is submitted at Goods Acceptance. Since AMS reporting requires data to be transmitted on HAWB level, these HAWB need to submitted at all times. 

Build up Units (BUPs) need to have the actual boarded weight and actual pieces included, so that LCAG can still transmit necessary data in case the shipment is not flown on one flight. Since CBP does not allow a shipment with calculated weight, we require that forwarders include the actual weight and pieces on each BUP manifest.

Download: Commodity Description

Lufthansa Cargo (LCAG) on principle does adhere to the relevant law and rules that apply to the carriage of air cargo and the import of the transported shipments into third countries. 

If properly published by the responsible governments and authorities LCAG will be up to date on the applicable regulations. 

Of course, this also goes for the customs rules implemented by the authorities of the USA, the bureau for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which comprise the requirement of electronic submission of shipment data. 

For possible faults in this context on its part LCAG will be liable according to the general liability rules as per the respectively applicable law (Warsaw Convention, Montreal Convention, a.s.o.) 

We shall not accept nor sign any additional liability clauses. 

As to liability we ask you to kindly watch following fact: 

• The shipper as per AWB is obligated to completely, correctly and timely provide all data and information necessary to properly execute the transportation of the consignment. 
• This does also apply to data reports requested by the authorities of various countries.
• This emanates from the law regulating international air traffic (Warsaw Convention, Hague Protocol, Montreal Protocol No. 4, Montreal Convention - Art. 10 + 16 of each). 
• If any expense or damage is caused by wrong or incomplete data provided on your part, you will be liable to compensate the airline and their agents for such damages suffered (including fees and fines etc. imposed by authorities).