IATA Announces Winner of 2024 FACE-UP Competition

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced that Erik Goldenstein was the recipient of the IATA FACE-UP award for 2024. FACE-UP is a competition for recent university graduates who have developed innovation and transformation solutions in air transport logistics. Goldenstein was voted as the winner for his role in creating the NE:ONE Play app built on the ONE Record Data Standard. The app provides a visualization of ONE Record data giving a very simplified overview of complex air cargo data. This allows organizations to browse through their shipment data as easily as browsing the web, facilitating optimization of their operational processes. The award was presented at the World Cargo Symposium (WCS) in Hong Kong.

FACE-UP is a competition that provides recent graduates from around the globe a unique opportunity to present their solution on addressing the challenges of the air cargo supply chain to industry executives.

Goldenstein is a research assistant, data scientist and software engineer in the Aviation Logistics department of Fraunhofer IML at Frankfurt Airport, currently working on a variety of topics in the field of aviation digitalization. “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 senior panel of judges from across the industry selected three finalists who presented at the WCS closing plenary for the audience to vote the ultimate winner of the FACE-UP competition. The finalists were shortlisted based on demonstrating innovation and also the potential to transform air cargo. The other finalists were Arjan Bhogal and his innovation to reduce the air cargo industry’s singleuse plastics problem, and Niclas Scheiber with his tool to manage complex ONE Record shipment data using advanced query technologies.

The biennial IATA FACEUP competition is part of IATA’s Future Air Cargo Executives (FACE) Program which was launched in 2013 with the aim of attracting, retaining and developing a bright and diverse pool of young talent, preparing them to become the next generation of leaders in the cargo industry.