Why Change at All?

For decades, airlines and ground handlers have relied on IATA’s AHM730 and 731 delay codes (see Decoding Delays: A Practical Guide to IATA Delay Codes) — a matrix of numeric entries that became the global reference language for operational disruption. But those two-digit tags were built for a different era: fewer stakeholders, less data, slower feedback loops.

Today’s operations are faster, more complex, and deeply interdependent. When a five-minute delay sparks a ten-leg ripple, imprecise codes don’t just cost time—they cost insight, money, and trust.

IATA’s answer is AHM 732, a new AAA (Process / Reason / Stakeholder) schema designed to reflect how delays actually happen.

Triple-A: From Two Digits to Three Letters

AHM732 replaces numeric codes with three-letter combinations (AAA) that unpack every delay into three core components:

• Process – Which part of the aircraft journey the delay happened in

• Reason – The specific cause within that process

• Stakeholder – Who was involved or responsible

For example: A cargo delay due to late warehouse acceptance by a third-party provider would be coded as D-B-N

• D = Cargo on position

• B = Late acceptance at warehouse

• N = Service provider

Instead of compressing the complexity of a delay into a number like “26,” we now get clarity, context, and cause, all at once.

What’s new—and why it matters

The operational advantages

• Precision over guesswork – Clear choices at the time of coding eliminate ambiguity.

• Root cause clarity – Stakeholder tagging ends the blame game.

• Process-level insight – Track which turnaround segments fail most often.

• Future-proofing – Digital-first design works with EFBs, APIs, and mobile UIs.

Cosmos is already optimized to handle triple-letter AHM732 codes, embedding them into dashboards, SLAs, and delay analytics in real time.

Transition timeline: What ops teams need to know

• AHM730/731 will remain in use until the 43rd edition of the IATA AHM.

• AHM732 is live now (starting with the 42nd edition) and will become the standard th the 44th edition.

• IATA is supporting the rollout with webinars and a free app: iata-ahm732.azurewebsites.net

You don’t need to wait. Forward-looking stations are already piloting AHM732-based workflows—with tools like Cosmos enabling a smooth transition.

Five ways to start preparing

1. Introduce the schema to your team — focus on the “process + reason + stakeholder” logic.

2. Map common legacy codes to their AHM732 equivalents for comparison.

3. Embed the free IATA AHM732 app into duty manager workflows for familiarization.

4. Set up weekly review loops using AHM732 codes to spot recurring breakdowns.

5. Enable digital tools like Cosmos to tag and analyze codes with minimal manual input.

Cosmos: Your launchpad for AHM732

AHM732 doesn’t just change how we report delays, it changes how we understand them. But codes alone don’t improve performance. True operational resilience comes from something deeper:

• A single source of truth shared across airline and handler

• Continuous collaboration instead of post-facto reporting

• Data that drives action — not just documentation

Cosmos doesn’t just log delays. It translates delay events into shared operational truth:

• Structured delay code support built into every touchpoint

• AI-powered code suggestions reduce miscoding and speed up entry

• Stakeholder dashboards track patterns across handlers and stations

Because a smart code is only as powerful as the system it lives in.

With Cosmos, airlines and their partners can turn that clarity into action—cutting delays, improving partnerships, and building a smarter ground operation network, one code at a time.