IATA has called for a stronger approach to dangerous goods handling across the entire air cargo supply chain, urging stricter discipline from shippers and forwarders through to ground handlers and carriers.

The International Air Transport Association, the body representing the world's airlines, says the safe carriage of dangerous goods — from lithium batteries to flammable liquids and radioactive materials — depends on every participant in the chain meeting the same standards, not just the airline at the end of the line.

The call lands at a moment when dangerous goods volumes moving by air continue to grow, driven largely by e-commerce flows of battery-powered consumer electronics. Undeclared or misdeclared lithium shipments remain a persistent fire risk in wide-body holds and unit load devices, and IATA has repeatedly flagged non-compliant declarations as one of the sector's most acute safety exposures.

For shippers and forwarders, the message carries direct commercial weight. Airlines that tighten acceptance checks — verifying UN numbers, packing groups, quantities and documentation before tender — will push more of the compliance burden upstream. Forwarders that fail to prepare correct Shipper's Declarations for Dangerous Goods and Dangerous Goods Transport Documents face rejection at acceptance, missed cut-offs and rebooking costs.

For carriers, a stronger chain-wide approach reduces the operational and liability risk of carrying undeclared hazardous cargo. Incidents traced to misdeclared goods can ground aircraft, trigger investigations and expose airlines to regulatory penalties across jurisdictions.

Ground handlers and warehouse operators sit at the pressure point. They must detect damaged or leaking packages, verify marks and labels, and apply segregation rules before loadout — often against tight turnaround windows and surging e-commerce volumes.

IATA's dangerous goods regime is built on the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations, the field manual that operationalises the ICAO Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air. The regulations set out classification, packing, marking, labelling and documentation requirements that apply on every flight carrying hazardous consignments.

The trade association's call for a stronger approach signals that voluntary compliance is no longer sufficient. Shippers should expect more audits, more stringent acceptance screening and less tolerance for ambiguous or incomplete declarations. Regulators, following ICAO's lead, are likely to keep tightening enforcement of the rules already on the books rather than rewriting them.

The trajectory is clear: dangerous goods compliance is shifting from a paperwork formality to a hard commercial gate — and every link in the air cargo chain will be judged by the weakest handoff.