EDI 110 Air Freight Details and Invoice Guide

The EDI 110 is the air freight bill as data. When a forwarder, integrator or airline moves a shipment by air, the party paying the freight gets a 110 with what was flown, between which airports, at what chargeable weight, and what each piece of the service cost: the air freight itself, fuel, pickup, delivery, handling and customs charges. It shares its beginning segment and charge segments with the motor carrier 210 and the ocean 310, so if you already audit truck or ocean bills, most of the mapping will look familiar.

This guide covers what the 110 bills, how air freight is rated on chargeable weight, every segment you will map, a live invoice from Chicago O'Hare to Los Angeles, how the 110 compares with the 210, 310 and rail 410, and the checks that catch air billing errors.

What Is an EDI 110?

An EDI 110 is the Air Freight Details and Invoice transaction set defined by ASC X12, which can be used to provide a customer with an air invoice for transportation and other charges related to shipments. The X12 description says it covers original invoices, past due billings, balance due bills and revisions. It travels in functional group IA (the GS01 value).

The 110 is the air freight invoice. Its partner on the shipping side is the 104 Air Shipment Information, which X12 describes as detailed bill of lading and rating information for an air carrier shipment. The two are easy to confuse because "shipment information" is also the name of the rail 404 and the general 858.

Authoritative references for 110 work:

• Stedi's X12 004010 reference for the 110 lists the heading, detail and summary segments
• The Transportation Management Coalition 110 guide hosted by C.H. Robinson is a real 004010 implementation for forwarders billing a shipper's freight payment program, with a full sample
• IATA's e-AWB program page explains the air waybill as the contract of carriage between shipper and airline, and IATA's AWB number validation help gives the 11-digit number format
• Maersk's guide to air cargo chargeable weight explains how volumetric weight and actual weight decide the billed weight
• Each payer publishes its own 110 requirements, which set the references it needs and the charge codes it accepts

Who sends it? The party that billed the air move: an airline, an air freight forwarder, an integrator such as an express carrier, or a freight payment provider on its behalf.

Who receives it? The party paying the freight: the shipper on prepaid, the consignee on collect, or a third party such as a 3PL or a freight audit and payment provider.

When is it sent? Usually after delivery, once the shipment is rated. Revised and balance-due bills follow if the charges change.

Why does it matter? Air freight is expensive per kilogram, and small differences in weight, dimensions or surcharges add up fast. The 110 is where you find out what you were charged for, line by line.

How Air Freight Is Rated: Chargeable Weight

Air carriers bill on chargeable weight: the greater of the actual gross weight and the volumetric (dimensional) weight. A common standard divisor is 6,000 cubic centimetres per kilogram, which works out to about 167 kg per cubic metre, though carriers and express services set their own factors.

In the sample below, 12 cartons weigh 186 kg gross and measure 1.42 cubic metres. At 167 kg per cubic metre, the volumetric weight is about 237 kg, so the shipment bills at 237 kg, not 186 kg. The 110 shows both: the billed weight in L0 and L3, and the billed and gross weights in separate L10 segments.

Interactive Example: Prepaid Air Freight, ORD to LAX

A sensor manufacturer near Chicago ships 12 cartons of sensor assemblies to an automotive customer in Torrance, California. The forwarder (SCAC NWAQ) picks up, flies the shipment from O'Hare (ORD) to Los Angeles (LAX), delivers it, and bills the shipper.

B3 gives the invoice number, the shipper's shipment ID, prepaid terms, kilograms, the invoice date, the net amount due (1,332.60), and the delivery date with qualifier 035 delivered. C3 sets US dollars. The heading N1 loops name the shipper, the consignee and the bill-to party, and the bill-to loop carries the forwarder's house air waybill number and the customer's PO in N9. In the LX loop, R1 gives the origin airport, the air carrier code and the destination airport, and POD records who signed for it. In the L5 loop, L0 and the first L10 give the 237 kg chargeable weight and the second L10 the 186 kg gross weight. The L1 lines bill air freight at 3.85 per kg (912.45), fuel surcharge at 0.95 per kg (225.15), pickup (85.00) and delivery (110.00), and L3 totals them. All names, codes and numbers are fictional.

Use the Plain English tab for a readable summary, or click any segment to break it down element by element.

110 Structure at a Glance

The table follows X12 release 004010.

Because LX repeats up to 9,999 times, one 110 can bill many shipments, and B3A02 can state how many. Whether each 110 bills one shipment or several is set by the payer's guide; one shipment per invoice makes matching to the air waybill simplest.

Key Segments Explained

B3: Beginning Segment for Carrier's Invoice

B3**NW26110934*HSS-SH-20417*PP*K*20261109*133260**20261106*035*NWAQ~

The layout is the same B3 used by the 210 and 310, so a mapper built for one can usually be reused for the others with mode-specific references added.

N1 and N9: Parties and the Air Waybill

N1*SH*HALDEN SENSOR SYSTEMS~
N1*CN*PACIFIC RIDGE AUTOMOTIVE~
N1*BT*HALDEN SENSOR SYSTEMS~
N9*AW*NWA2611054~
N9*PO*PRA-4471820~

The heading N1 loop can repeat only three times, so most 110s send the shipper (SH), consignee (CN) and bill-to (BT) or payer (PR). Each N1 loop can carry its own N9 references. AW is the air waybill number. Other common qualifiers are CR customer reference, SI shipper's identifying number and PO purchase order.

Airline air waybill numbers have 11 digits: a three-digit airline prefix, a seven-digit serial and a check digit. A forwarder consolidating several shippers' freight under one airline master air waybill issues each shipper a house air waybill with its own number format. Ask the billing party which one it sends in N9*AW, and store both if you get both.

R1: Route Information (Air)

R1***ORD*QNW*LAX~

R1 describes the airport routing. A shipment that connects through a hub adds a carrier and airport pair for each leg. Which code set the carrier code uses is set by the billing party's guide.

L5, L0 and L10: What Was Shipped and the Weights

L5*1*AUTOMOTIVE SENSOR ASSEMBLIES~
L0*1***237*B*1.42*X*12*CTN**K~
L10*237*B*K~
L10*186*G*K~

Two L10 segments, billed and gross, are the quickest way to see whether you paid for volume rather than weight. The TMC guide also sends L4 with the dimensions, so a payer can recompute the volumetric weight itself.

L1: Rate and Charges

L1*1*3.85*KG*91245****400****AIR FREIGHT~
L1*2*0.95*KG*22515****405****FUEL SURCHARGE~
L1*3***8500****PUC****PICKUP CHARGE~
L1*4***11000****DEL****DELIVERY CHARGE~

X12 codes you will see in L108 include 400 freight, 405 fuel surcharge, PUC pick-up charge, DEL delivery charge, HHB handling, 360 export customs clearance, TER terminal charge and DOC documentation charge. The TMC guide adds import clearance, duty and terminal handling codes for international moves. Map each billing party's codes to your freight cost accounts from its guide, and treat L112 as a label, not a key.

L3: Total Weight and Charges

L3*237*B***133260******12*K~

Check that the L1 charges add up to L305 and to B307. In the sample: 912.45 + 225.15 + 85.00 + 110.00 = 1,332.60.

EDI 110 vs 210, 310, 410 and 104

A door-to-door air shipment often has a truck leg at each end. When the forwarder handles the whole move, the pickup and delivery come as PUC and DEL lines on the same 110, as in the sample. When you book the trucking yourself, the trucker's charges arrive separately, usually on a 210.

How to Audit a 110

110 Implementation Checklist

Before your first live 110 from a carrier or forwarder:

• Get the billing party's 110 guide, or send it your own, and confirm the X12 version in GS08 (004010 is common; FedEx publishes a guide in release 004060)
• Agree whether each 110 bills one shipment or many
• Agree where the air waybill, your shipment ID and your PO numbers appear
• Agree how chargeable weight is reported: billed and gross L10, dimensions in L4, volume in L0
• Load the billing party's L108 codes and map them to your freight cost accounts
• Decide how revised and balance-due bills are reviewed before payment
• Return a 997 for each 110 and agree on remittance, such as an 820
• Test a domestic shipment, an international shipment with customs charges, a revision and a multi-shipment invoice if you will receive them

To spread air freight across order lines and see what it does to margin, use our landed cost calculator. For how the transportation sets fit next to orders and invoices, see our EDI document types reference.

Where OrderSync Fits

Air freight usually starts with an urgent order: a line-down part, a launch, a customer who needs it tomorrow. The PO in N9, the consignee and the quantity on the 110 all come from that order, whether it arrived as an EDI 850, a PDF, an email or a spreadsheet.

OrderSync reads inbound orders in any format, matches customers, items and units to your catalog, and outputs clean ERP data or valid X12. Paste any 110 into the free EDI inspector to see it parsed segment by segment with a plain-English summary and any structural errors explained, or book a 15-minute walkthrough to see your own orders processed.

Frequently Asked Questions