A New Era in Air Cargo Customs Procedures

A New Era in Air Cargo Customs Procedures: ACDS Goes Live at Esenboğa and Sabiha Gökçen

A significant step has been taken to accelerate customs procedures in air transportation. The Ministry of Trade aims to reduce time loss and streamline customs processes for both outbound and inbound flights by transitioning to an electronic environment. The Air Cargo Customs Declaration System, known by its Turkish abbreviation HGBS, developed for this purpose has been initially launched at the Esenboğa and Sabiha Gökçen Customs Directorates.

With the new system, the air cargo declaration form and its attachments, which were previously submitted physically at customs for each flight, can now be submitted electronically. Flight information, crew and passenger details, cargo manifests, as well as supplementary documents such as fuel and catering records can now be uploaded digitally to the system. This eliminates the need to prepare and present an average of 15 paper documents per flight.

Since transactions through the system can be completed in real time, significant time savings are achieved for both airlines and all parties involved in customs processes. Delays caused by physical document preparation, submission, and review are reduced, and a decrease in operational costs is also anticipated.

As the pilot implementation is expanded, the system is planned to be rolled out first at high-traffic airports such as Antalya and Istanbul, and subsequently at all airports across Turkey. In the next phases of the project, additional developments are also expected to be introduced, including electronic data sharing with the State Airports Authority for landing and takeoff information, automation of temporary storage entry and exit procedures, and the ability to query declaration and customs process steps through a mobile application.

The goal of this digital transformation is clear: to simplify air cargo customs processes, deliver speed and efficiency in foreign trade, and enhance the international competitiveness of Turkish exporters.