Demo SkyBridge Cargo: an airline cargo and ground-handling day

Demo SkyBridge Cargo operates freighter and belly-hold capacity between the UAE, India, Kenya, and Europe. It sells cargo space to forwarders, handles special goods, leases ULDs, buys fuel in USD, pays airport and ground agents in local currencies, and reports profitability by route and flight leg. OSERP connects schedule, booking, airway bill, shipment, warehouse, ULD, fuel, handling, supplier, invoice, claim, and ledger.

1. Configure entities, stations, and operating dimensions

Create a legal company per jurisdiction, then stations, cargo terminals, bonded warehouses, maintenance locations, and ground-handling branches. Configure functional and reporting currencies, tax profiles, fiscal calendars, numbering series, aircraft or leased-capacity assets, customer credit policies, and restricted-goods permissions.

Setup field	Demo value	Impact
Company	SkyBridge UAE Cargo LLC	Local statutory books
Station	Dubai World Central	Flight and handling ownership
Route	DXB-NBO-FRA	Route margin and capacity
Flight leg	SB-426 / 2026-09-17	Operational trace key
Currency	AED	Local transactions
Reporting currency	USD	Group profitability
Warehouse	DWC-BONDED-01	Cargo custody
ULD pool	SB-ULD-DXB	Container availability

Users are scoped by company, station, warehouse, and role. A cargo agent can create a booking but cannot release dangerous goods, alter tariff, or approve a credit note. A station finance user cannot post fuel cost to another company’s flight leg.

2. Maintain customers, forwarders, and rate agreements

Customer profiles store legal identity, licence, tax registration, IATA or agent code, credit limit, currency, payment terms, billing address, compliance status, and status. Rate agreements store customer, origin, destination, commodity, chargeable-weight rule, minimum charge, fuel surcharge, security fee, currency, effective dates, and approval.

A forwarder contract can specify block space, allotment, no-show charge, demurrage, and claim limit. Versions preserve historical terms. A customer with an expired licence or blocked credit status cannot confirm a booking without an authorised override.

3. Plan flight legs and capacity

The flight-leg header stores flight number, aircraft or leased capacity, origin, destination, departure and arrival, fuel plan, crew, station, currency, and status. Capacity rows store ULD position, volumetric limit, weight limit, special-cargo capability, and reserved allotment.

Status path is Planned → Open for booking → Closed for acceptance → Departed → Arrived → Closed, with Cancelled, Diverted, and Returned controlled by reason. A changed departure time is versioned and alerts affected customers. A closed leg cannot accept new cargo without an approved exception.

4. Create bookings, airway bills, and cargo pieces

A booking stores shipper, consignee, forwarder, origin, destination, commodity, pieces, dimensions, gross weight, chargeable weight, service, flight leg, rate agreement, currency, and status. Detail rows store piece ID, package type, dimensions, weight, handling code, temperature range, dangerous-goods declaration, and documentation.

Booking field	Demo value	Why it matters
Booking	SBK-DXB-260917-0042	Stable commercial key
Airway bill	176-98765432	Shipment and invoice trace
Gross weight	1,800 kg	Physical custody
Chargeable weight	2,250 kg	Revenue calculation
Commodity	Pharma samples	Handling and compliance
Temperature	2–8 °C	Cold-chain acceptance
Flight leg	SB-426	Capacity and route margin

The system recalculates chargeable weight from dimensions and configured divisor. A dangerous-goods or temperature requirement without approved documentation routes to hold. Corrections create a version; staff must not overwrite the airway bill history.

5. Receive, screen, and build ULDs

Cargo receipt stores booking, piece, warehouse, arrival time, gross weight, condition, seal, screening result, and custodian. A screening record stores method, operator, result, image or document, and exception. ULD build records container, flight leg, pieces, weight, centre of gravity, seal, build time, build agent, and acceptance.

A damaged or overweight piece remains in Hold. A ULD cannot be closed when piece weights do not reconcile or when a restricted-goods document is missing. Transfer between bonded warehouses records dispatch, receipt, escort, seal, and time.

6. Bill freight, surcharges, and handling

The invoice header stores customer, airway bill, flight leg, station, currency, rate agreement, tax profile, payment terms, and billing status. Lines store freight, minimum charge, fuel surcharge, security, screening, storage, handling, documentation, and discount. The server calculates chargeable-weight freight and verifies that line totals equal the approved tariff.

For 2,250 kg at USD 2.40/kg, freight is USD 5,400. A USD 270 fuel surcharge and USD 90 security fee are separate lines. Customer and forwarder statements preserve gross, tax, credit, and receipt allocation. A credit note references the airway bill and reason.

7. Manage fuel, maintenance, and airport charges

Fuel receipts store supplier, station, uplift date, aircraft or flight leg, quantity, unit price, density, currency, tank, and meter evidence. Fuel variance compares planned, uplifted, and consumed quantity. A large variance creates an exception linked to the flight log.

Maintenance work orders store aircraft or equipment, defect, task, parts, labour, vendor, downtime, airworthiness approval, and cost. Parts are batch or serial controlled. Airport-charge invoices store movement, landing, parking, navigation, security, and handling fees by flight leg. Imported parts priced in EUR retain freight, duty, and landed cost.

8. Pay ground handlers and agents

Ground-agent contracts store station, service, rate, currency, minimum, SLA, effective dates, and approval. Service confirmations reference flight leg, ULD, pieces handled, temperature evidence, delay, damage, and acceptance. Supplier invoices match contract, service confirmation, and airport statement before payment.

A missing ULD scan or late-handling penalty routes to dispute. The payable retains the disputed amount, owner, evidence, and resolution; it is not hidden in a generic expense.

9. Recognise revenue and manage claims

Revenue recognition follows the configured performance event, normally accepted carriage or completed transport. The schedule stores airway bill, service period, currency, charge, deferred balance, release date, and account. A cancelled or returned shipment adjusts future recognition according to policy.

Claims store airway bill, shipper, consignee, event date, damage or loss, survey, reserve, currency, insurer, liability limit, decision, payment, and recovery. A temperature excursion links logger data to affected pieces and may create a customer credit, insurer recovery, or disposal cost. Original billing and custody history remain immutable.

10. Collect, settle, and reconcile currencies

Receipts store bank, gateway, value date, currency, external reference, payer, allocation, and fees. A USD forwarder payment against an AED ledger stores applied rate, source, date, and realised FX. Unapplied receipts remain visible and aged. Duplicate references are idempotently rejected.

Close reconciles bookings to airway bills, accepted pieces to ULDs, ULDs to flight legs, flight legs to fuel and airport charges, invoices to receipts, agent statements to payables, claims, maintenance, payroll, tax, FX, and intercompany station transfers. Period lock prevents backdated flight acceptance or fuel receipt; corrections cite original documents and approvals.

KPI	Before OSERP discipline	After OSERP discipline	Improvement
Booking-to-invoice lag	6 days	1 day	83% faster
ULD custody accuracy	93.5%	99.7%	+6.2 points
Chargeable-weight disputes	8.2%	2.1%	74% lower
Ground-agent reconciliation	11 days	3 days	73% faster
Cargo-claim resolution	29 days	10 days	66% faster
Route month-end close	15 days	5 days	67% faster

Practice challenge

Create SkyBridge UAE, a flight leg, a forwarder rate agreement, a temperature-controlled booking, cargo receipt and screening, ULD build, freight invoice, fuel receipt, airport charge, ground-agent service, customer payment, claim, multi-currency revaluation, and route close. For every field, explain its type, length or precision, source, permission, validation, accounting impact, tax result, API identifier, exception path, and audit event.

Related: Airport operator lab, Inventory field guide, Sales order field guide, AR Invoice field guide, AP Invoice field guide, GL mapping guide, Multi-currency lab, and API cookbook.