Erik Goldenstein Secures Prestigious 2024 IATA FACE-UP Award for Innovative Air Cargo Solution

Thursday, March 14, 2024

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) revealed that Erik Goldenstein has been honored with the 2024 IATA FACE-UP accolade. The FACE-UP contest is a prestigious platform for recent college graduates who have introduced groundbreaking solutions in the realm of air transport logistics.

Goldenstein emerged victorious for his innovative contribution through the development of the NE:ONE Play application, leveraging the ONE Record Data Standard. This application offers a user-friendly interface for visualizing the intricacies of air freight data, essentially simplifying the complexity of cargo information. It enables entities to effortlessly navigate their shipping data, akin to web surfing, thereby streamlining their operational efficiencies. The accolade was bestowed during the World Cargo Symposium (WCS) event in Hong Kong.

The FACE-UP challenge serves as an extraordinary avenue for recent university alumni worldwide to showcase their inventive approaches to overcoming air cargo supply chain hurdles to sector leaders.

Currently, Goldenstein is engaged as a research assistant, data scientist, and software developer within the Aviation Logistics sector of the Fraunhofer IML, stationed at Frankfurt Airport. His work is focused on a broad spectrum of subjects pertaining to the digital transformation in aviation.

“I congratulate Erik for an outstanding achievement. The biggest opportunity in air cargo is digitalization and the key to this is the adoption of the ONE Record standard. It was great to see an innovation recognized 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 distinguished panel comprising industry veterans shortlisted three contenders, who then showcased their innovations at the WCS’s final session, where attendees voted to crown the FACE-UP contest’s champion. These finalists were appraised for their inventive contributions and their potential to revolutionize air freight. Among them were Arjan Bhogal, who proposed a solution to mitigate the air cargo sector’s dependency on single-use plastics, and Niclas Scheiber, who introduced a sophisticated tool for managing intricate ONE Record shipment data through advanced querying techniques.

Initiated in 2013, the biennial IATA FACE-UP competition is an integral component of the IATA Future Air Cargo Executives (FACE) Program. This initiative aims to draw, nurture, and evolve a talented and diverse cadre of young professionals poised to lead the cargo industry into the future.

« Back to Page