Qatar Airways Cargo and IATA proudly concluded the first ever One Record Hackathon in the Middle East, in Doha, Qatar on Sunday 26 November.

17 teams from around the world came together for a thrilling 28 hour competition to submit highly sophisticated and innovative solutions surrounding the IATA ONE Record data sharing standard to showcase use cases that will help shape air cargo.

Six core challenges were given to developers to deep dive into the aviation environment and find solutions for the cargo industry including AI-powered tools, enhancing safety and compliance measures in operations, and pre-validation on documentation to expediate processes.

These solutions were presented to a jury and after much deliberation the following projects were announced as winners:

Qatar Airways Cargo Prize for team CheckSync by Swissport, Lufthansa Cargo, and Lufthansa Industry Solutions, improves cargo check processes with AI, utilizing ONE Record for accuracy and efficiency.

ONE Record Prize for team NE:ONE automate by Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa Industry Solutions and Fraunhofer automates ONE Record digital cargo 'Change Requests', enhancing efficiency and customer experience with AI and a user-friendly interface.

Cargo iQ prize for team OnePiece by Turkish Cargo, inspired by Turkey's 2023 earthquake, focuses on efficient, individual piece level cargo management for better response and communication.

Developer Prize for team OneAI by Unisys, leverages Generative AI for air cargo booking compliance, streamlining pet shipment processes with AI and IATA regulations.

AWS Prize for team QPay by Awery, a quick book and pay tool, integrates various payment methods with ONE Record, using Qatar Airways API to enhance airline revenue, customer experience, and transparency.

Elisabeth Oudkerk, Senior Vice President of Sales & Network Planning at Qatar Airways Cargo said: "We were happy to welcome so many vibrant and innovative minds from around the world to Doha this weekend and to see some amazing creativity and bespoke cargo solutions created.

“Being at the forefront of technology, we continuously invest in innovation and digitalization, it is a core pillar as a part of our Vision 2027 Strategy, so we thrive on being able to be a part of such engaging events.

Brendan Sullivan, Global Head of Cargo, IATA added: “The ONE Record Hackathon showcases the ingenuity within our industry and underscores the importance of collaborative innovation. These events are crucial for advancing the IATA ONE Record program, harnessing a global community's talent to drive digital transformation, and set new benchmarks for efficiency and sustainability in air cargo.”

IATA's hackathon program was launched in 2015, initially focusing on airlines’ retailing capabilities. The scope has since evolved to address other areas including environment, payment, cargo, accessibility, among many others.