AirlineConnect, WiseTech Global's digital booking capability inside CargoWise, now reaches airlines accounting for 75% of the air waybills its customers execute — a gain of 15 percentage points in twelve months. The software vendor is now pushing the network further by opening it to general sales and service agents, a move that intensifies pressure on independent air cargo booking platforms such as Freightos.

ATC Aviation Services, part of World Freight Company (WFC), has become the first GSSA to connect to AirlineConnect. The integration allows CargoWise users to search, compare and book services from the airlines ATC represents in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Capacity, schedules and dynamic pricing now sit inside the same system forwarders use to manage shipments, with booking confirmations, amendments, cancellations and status updates feeding directly into their workflow.

Stuart Hayman, head of carrier integration and transformation at WiseTech, told The Loadstar the company expects more customers to book directly in CargoWise as the network expands.

"When booking happens inside the execution workflow, data is captured once and carried through the full shipment lifecycle," he said. "That clearly benefits accuracy, speed, and cost, so yes, we expect more forwarders to take advantage of these efficiencies."

The 75% figure carries an important qualification. It measures the connected airlines' share of customers' air waybills — not the proportion of shipments actually booked through AirlineConnect. WiseTech has not disclosed booking volumes through the channel, so actual uptake remains unverified against the headline coverage number. Nor did the company specify whether airlines or GSSAs pay connection or transaction fees. Access to AirlineConnect is included in the CargoWise Value Pack.

The GSSA route could nonetheless broaden reach quickly. WFC markets capacity for more than 300 airlines across over 3,500 tradelanes, although the initial ATC connection covers only its airline portfolio in the DACH region. WiseTech expects coverage to expand through WFC's network over the coming months, and through additional GSSA connections.

"Many of the airlines that GSSAs represent don't run their own ebooking channels in every market," said Hayman. A single GSSA integration can therefore bring several represented carriers onto the platform at once — a capacity argument that matters for smaller airlines without their own digital booking infrastructure.

Freightos pushes back

Freightos founder and former CEO Zvi Schreiber argued that independent booking platforms retain structural advantages over a service embedded in one transport management system.

"Freightos Platform has two things a TMS can't easily copy. It's neutral, so an airline connected to it reaches forwarders whatever system they run," he told The Loadstar. "And through Freightos's shipper marketplace, the Freightos platform connects end-to-end, carriers to forwarders to shippers."

Schreiber is campaigning for Freightos to prioritise platform growth and said maintaining the network advantage requires sustained investment.

"When a well-funded incumbent moves into your market, that's the moment to accelerate, not to take a sabbatical from growth," he said.

The competitive framing is straightforward: WiseTech's play ties booking to the forwarder's operating system, capturing data at the point of execution. Freightos counters with neutrality across systems and an end-to-end chain extending to shippers. Forwarders must weigh lock-in against reach.

Beyond booking

WiseTech's airfreight ambitions extend past the booking transaction itself. In July, a collaboration with Lufthansa Cargo and IBS Software enabled shipment records to be exchanged using IATA's ONE Record standard.

Hayman described the projects as addressing different parts of the same workflow. AirlineConnect enables forwarders to find and secure capacity; ONE Record supports shipment data exchange throughout the shipment lifecycle.

"We will expand the bookable network through more direct airline and GSSA connections, deepen post-booking messaging and status visibility, and support standards such as ONE Record as airlines adopt them," he said.

Forwarders hedge

For forwarders, connectivity increasingly shapes the choice of operating system. Cherry's Logistics, a new Hamburg-based forwarder, selected CargoWise after evaluating alternatives, with co-founder Marc-Henrik Schmitz citing "the API connection possibilities" as a factor in the decision.

Co-founder Sandra Bufe pointed to scalability and the potential to save time and manpower. But Cherry's intends to build its own data and knowledge environment, connecting its TMS with other systems while preserving supplier flexibility.

"We want to stay flexible in making our own choices," said Schmitz.

Hayman acknowledged that forwarders will continue using multiple booking channels as the market moves away from manual processes. "Our job is to make CargoWise the most complete and convenient option, which is why expanding the network through GSSAs like ATC is so important," he said.

With coverage set to grow through WFC's network and additional GSSA connections in the coming months, and ONE Record adoption gathering pace among carriers, WiseTech has positioned CargoWise as an increasingly complete alternative to standalone booking platforms — leaving players such as Freightos to defend neutrality as their principal differentiator.