Tech & AI Oct 15, 2026 · 8 min read

Delta Cargo puts its space inside CargoWise

Delta Cargo now sells space inside CargoWise. Delta Cargo has joined WiseTech’s CargoWise Carrier Connectivity Program, WiseTech said on 13 October. CargoWise users can now see Delta’s live rates and capacity and book, confirm and change shipments without leaving the system, Air Cargo News reported. CargoWise says 23 of the 25 largest forwarders are its customers. In our view, this is Delta covering every channel at once: its own tools, the CargoAi marketplace since August, and now the forwarder’s own software. For forwarders, quotes get faster. But one supplier gains more control over how air space is sold. Our call: at least one more large airline joins by end of Q1 2027.

Delta Cargo moves into the forwarder’s back office, and the fight over who sells air space is moving with it
WiseTech Global said on 13 October that Delta Cargo has joined its CargoWise Carrier Connectivity Program, MT Newswires reported. CargoWise is the operating software, sometimes called an ERP (enterprise resource planning system), that many forwarders use to run jobs, documents and billing. CargoWise says its customers include 23 of the 25 largest global freight forwarders. That figure is the company’s own claim, repeated by Air Cargo News on 14 October.
The practical change is simple. Forwarders who use CargoWise can now book, confirm and manage Delta Cargo shipments directly inside it, Air Cargo News reported. They see live capacity and rates as customer enquiries come in. They can tailor bookings by commodity, configure routings and change bookings, all without leaving the system.
Our view is that this is less about one integration and more about how airlines now sell. Delta is not picking a channel. It is putting the same space everywhere a forwarder might look. That is good for forwarders who want speed. It also hands more weight to the software company in the middle.

What Delta has done this year

The CargoWise link is the latest step in a run of digital moves by Delta Cargo in 2026.
In April, Delta Cargo and CargoAi, a third-party online booking marketplace, signed a digital partnership at the IATA World Cargo Symposium in Lima, Air Freight News reported on 3 April. The deal covered rate visibility and eBooking (booking air freight online rather than by email or phone) for forwarders worldwide. At the time, no go-live date had been set.
In July, Delta added a five-day search to its booking tools, Air Cargo News reported. Customers can search flights across a five-day window instead of a single day. That matters when a shipper is flexible on departure and the forwarder wants the best rate or the most space.
In August, Delta’s capacity went live on CargoAi, according to the same Air Cargo News report.
And now, in October, Delta sits inside CargoWise.
Peter Penseel, president of Delta Cargo, framed the aim in the Air Cargo News report: “Ensuring that Delta Cargo services are easily accessible wherever freight forwarders prefer to work is at the heart of our digital strategy.” He added: “By connecting directly to CargoWise, we’re expanding the ways customers can access Delta Cargo services” through the platforms they use every day. And he called the integration “a natural next step to making Delta Cargo easier to do business with”.
That phrase, “wherever freight forwarders prefer to work”, is the strategy. Delta is not trying to pull forwarders onto its own website. It is going to them.

Delta is following American, not leading

Delta is not the first big US carrier to do this. WiseTech announced in May that American Airlines Cargo had joined the same CargoWise programme, Daily Cargo News reported on 19 May and STAT Times on 20 May.
STAT Times described what American’s link offers. Forwarders can plan, book, confirm and manage shipments with the airline in real time inside CargoWise. They can view schedules, rates, capacity and bookings, and change digital bookings without leaving the platform. The connection also supports IATA ONE Record. That is the airline industry’s standard for sharing shipment data in one shared digital record rather than many separate messages. It lets forwarders send the master air waybill (the airline’s main transport contract document for a consolidated shipment) digitally through to final execution.
So at least two big US passenger airlines now sell cargo space directly inside CargoWise. In our view, once two big carriers on the same market are inside the system forwarders already use, the others face pressure to follow. A forwarder quoting a transatlantic or transpacific move will reach first for the carriers it can book in two clicks.

Why the plumbing matters to forwarders

For a forwarder’s air desk, the gain is time. Today, a typical quote can mean checking several airline portals, a marketplace or two, and email. Then the booking details get retyped into the forwarder’s own system. Each step adds delay and risk of error.
With a direct link, the rate and space appear where the job is already open. The booking flows back into the same file. Changes do too. For a busy desk handling dozens of enquiries a day, that cuts both work and mistakes.
It also helps smaller offices of large forwarders. Staff who do not book Delta often no longer need a separate login or training on another portal.
But there are three things we think forwarders should watch.
First, rate parity. Delta now sells through its own tools, CargoAi and CargoWise. Forwarders should check whether the same lane on the same day shows the same rate and the same space in each place. If it does not, the channel you book through starts to matter as much as the carrier. Neither Delta nor WiseTech has said publicly how rates will line up across channels.
Second, what the link does not include. The Air Cargo News report covers schedules, rates, capacity, bookings and changes. It does not say whether Delta’s link supports ONE Record or digital air waybills in the way American’s does. Forwarders should ask before assuming the paperwork side is automated too.
Third, the marketplaces. Independent booking platforms make money by being the one place a forwarder can compare many airlines. Each airline that plugs straight into CargoWise weakens that pitch for CargoWise users. Delta’s choice to stay on CargoAi as well suggests airlines want both for now. But the direction of travel favours the system that already holds the forwarder’s jobs.

The price of convenience

That brings us to WiseTech itself. The more carriers live inside CargoWise, the harder it is for a forwarder to leave. That is the normal logic of platforms. It matters here because WiseTech’s pricing is already a sore point.
In December 2025, Daily Cargo News reported that freight forwarders were angry about a new WiseTech billing model, with the chief executive of Australia’s peak industry body calling the change “unacceptable”.
More recently, The Loadstar reported on 8 October that a Citi research note dated 1 October says WiseTech plans to charge separately for CargoWise AI agents, outside the CargoWise Value Pack price. A Value Pack is WiseTech’s bundled pricing plan for CargoWise. AI agents are software tools that carry out tasks on their own, such as processing documents or handling routine steps in a booking.
According to The Loadstar, Citi estimates that, after price rises and contract conversions, more than $30m of the extra second-half revenue WiseTech needs to reach the lower end of its CargoWise growth guidance will have to come from AI agents and VerifyWise. Citi questioned whether that can happen quickly, as the agents are still in development.
Responding to questions from The Loadstar, WiseTech chief executive Zubin Appoo said six agentic capabilities are currently available through Value Packs. He left pricing for more advanced tools open. He argued that because the AI is built into CargoWise’s workflow engine, the agents can work together: “This is not something external AI tools can replicate.” On what comes next, he said: “We will provide further details on future offerings when they are ready to be brought to market.”
Carrier connectivity is not an AI agent. Nothing reported so far says forwarders will pay extra to book Delta inside CargoWise. But in our view, the two stories connect. Carrier links make CargoWise more central to a forwarder’s day. AI agents that act on those links, for example by picking the best flight and booking it, are exactly the kind of advanced tool WiseTech has said it may price separately. Forwarders should read their contracts with that in mind.

What this means for shippers and lanes

For shippers, the direct effect is faster quotes from forwarders on Delta routes. Delta Cargo is the air freight arm of Delta Air Lines, so the benefit follows that airline’s network.
The wider effect is on how space is shared out. When airline capacity sits inside forwarders’ own systems, the forwarders with the deepest CargoWise use get to it fastest. In a tight market, such as peak season, that can mean the biggest CargoWise users lock in space before others have finished checking portals. Smaller forwarders on other systems may need to rely more on marketplaces or direct airline tools to keep up.
For airlines, the gain is lower sales cost and more bookings without email back-and-forth. The trade-off is that the forwarder’s software company sits closer to the customer.

Our call

We expect more of this, and soon. American joined in May. Delta joined in October. Both are cargo arms of big US passenger airlines. We think the pressure on peers is now clear.
Our prediction: at least one more large passenger airline’s cargo arm will announce it has joined the CargoWise Carrier Connectivity Program by the end of Q1 2027. We also expect WiseTech to say more about how AI agents will be priced before then, given Appoo’s own promise of “further details”. Forwarders who rely on CargoWise should be ready for that conversation by the new year.

Sources