The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that Erik Goldenstein received the 2024 IATA FACE-UP award. FACE-UP is a competition for recent university graduates who have developed innovation and transformation solutions in air transport logistics.

Goldenstein was voted the winner for creating the NE: ONE Play app built on the ONE Record Data Standard. The app visualises ONE Record data, giving a simplified overview of complex air cargo data.

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This allows organisations to browse their shipment data as quickly as they can browse the web, facilitating the optimisation of their operational processes. The award was presented at the World Cargo Symposium (WCS) in Hong Kong.

FACE-UP is a competition that provides recent graduates from around the globe a unique opportunity to present their solutions to address the air cargo supply chain challenges to industry executives. Goldenstein is a research assistant, data scientist and software engineer in the Aviation Logistics department of Fraunhofer IML at Frankfurt Airport, currently working on a variety of topics in the field of aviation digitalisation. “I congratulate Erik for an outstanding achievement.

The biggest opportunity in air cargo is digitalisation; the key is adopting the ONE Record standard. It was great to see an innovation recognised that will help drive the implementation of this global standard for efficient data exchange throughout the supply chain,” said Brendan Sullivan, IATA’s Global Head of Cargo. A senior panel of judges from across the industry selected three finalists who presented at the WCS closing plenary for the audience to vote for the ultimate winner of the FACE-UP competition.

The finalists were shortlisted based on their innovation demonstration and potential to transform air cargo. The other finalists were Arjan Bhogal, his innovation to reduce the air cargo industry’s single-use plastics problem and Niclas Scheiber, with his tool to manage complex ONE Record shipment data using advanced query technologies.

The biennial IATA FACE-UP competition is part of IATA’s Future Air Cargo Executives (FACE) Program, which was launched in 2013 to attract, retain and develop a bright and diverse pool of young talent, preparing them to become the next generation of leaders in the cargo industry.