Air waybill

An air waybill is the transport document an airline, or its cargo agent, issues for anything it carries as cargo. It is both the receipt and the contract between the sender and the airline, and it carries an 11-digit number. When a repatriation has to go by air, the coffin travels under one.

When you will need one

Only when the repatriation goes by air, which is the exception. Within mainland Europe most repatriations go by road in a funeral vehicle, and there is no air waybill at all; see repatriation by road. Air is for the rest of the world, for islands, and for the few countries whose rules ask for it. Then the coffin travels in the hold of a scheduled passenger or freight flight, and the waybill goes with it.

Who issues it

The airline issues it, or its authorised cargo agent does, once it has received the coffin and the shipping instructions. The funeral director at the departure end books the cargo space, attaches the other papers, such as the embalming certificate, and brings the coffin to the cargo terminal. At the destination, the receiving funeral director collects from the cargo terminal with the same documents.

What the number means

The 11 digits are a three-digit airline prefix, a seven-digit serial number and one check digit, and the funeral directors at both ends use them to follow the consignment from airport to airport. The waybill also serves as the freight bill and the customs declaration. It stops being valid once the coffin has been delivered to the person named to receive it.

The airline prices the cargo by weight and by route, and that charge is one line in the repatriation estimate rather than a bill of its own. You can book a seat on the same flight, and some families do, though the airline treats the two bookings as separate and there is no access to the hold.