The Dangerous Goods Declaration: The Paperwork Behind Every Hazmat Air Shipment

Air cargo moves in the belly of passenger aircraft and on freighters, and the rules for what can go on board are strict because there is no way to fight a fire or isolate a leak at altitude. Many ordinary products are dangerous goods for air transport: lithium batteries and anything containing them, aerosols, perfumes and alcohol-based liquids, many adhesives, paints and solvents, some cosmetics, magnets, and pressurised items. To ship them legally by air, the shipper prepares a Shipper Declaration for Dangerous Goods, the DGD, under the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations. This guide explains what the DGD is, what it must contain, who can sign it, and what happens when it is wrong. It extends our note on shipping lithium batteries by air and the air freight documentation checklist.

What the IATA DGR and the DGD are

The IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations are the airline industry rule book, rebuilt every year from the international transport regulations for dangerous goods. They classify hazardous materials into nine classes, from explosives to corrosives to miscellaneous dangerous goods, assign each substance a four-digit UN number and a proper shipping name, and set packing instructions, quantity limits per package, and whether the item may travel on passenger aircraft, cargo aircraft only, or not at all. The DGD is the shipper written certification, for one specific shipment, that the goods are correctly classified, packed, marked and labelled to those rules. It is often printed on a form with a red candy-stripe border so handlers spot it instantly.

What the DGD must contain

Every field is prescribed, and dangerous goods acceptance staff check them against the regulations line by line:

• Shipper and consignee names and addresses.
• Air waybill number the declaration belongs to.
• Airport of departure and airport of destination.
• Whether the shipment is permitted on passenger and cargo aircraft, or cargo aircraft only.
• For each dangerous substance: the UN or ID number, the proper shipping name, the class or division, the subsidiary risk if any, and the packing group.
• The quantity per package and the type of packaging, and the number of packages.
• The packing instruction number used.
• Any special handling information and the relevant authorisations.
• The name and title of the signatory, the place and date, and a signature.
• The certification statement, word for word from the regulations, that the contents are fully and accurately described, classified, packed, marked and labelled and are in proper condition for transport.

The packages themselves must then match the paper: UN specification packaging where required, the correct hazard labels and handling labels, the proper shipping name and UN number marked on the box, and orientation arrows for liquids. The DGD, the marks and the labels form one consistent set.

Who is allowed to prepare and sign it

A DGD may only be completed by a person who has current, valid dangerous goods training to the category required for their role. Training has to be refreshed on a fixed cycle. This is not a formality: the signatory is personally certifying compliance, and a false declaration is an offence in most jurisdictions and voids the airline acceptance. In practice, for a Bangladeshi importer buying hazmat goods from China, the DGD is prepared by the Chinese shipper or, more often, by a freight forwarder in China with a trained dangerous goods desk, working from a safety data sheet the manufacturer provides. Your job as importer is to make sure the supplier discloses the hazard early and that a competent party is handling the declaration, not to sign it yourself.

Lithium batteries, the most common trap

Most hazmat air shipments from China involve lithium batteries: power banks, cordless tools, e-bikes and scooters, toys, laptops, vape devices, and any product with a rechargeable cell. The rules distinguish batteries shipped alone, batteries packed with equipment, and batteries installed in equipment, and they set state-of-charge limits and watt-hour thresholds. Some configurations are barred from passenger aircraft entirely. A supplier who ships these as general cargo with a plain invoice is creating a serious problem: if it is detected, the shipment is offloaded and you face investigation; if it is not detected, an undeclared battery fire is a catastrophe. Insist on the battery specification and the UN 38.3 test summary before you order.

What happens when the DGD is wrong

• Rejection at acceptance. The airline dangerous goods desk refuses the shipment. It sits at the forwarder warehouse until the paper and packing are fixed, and you miss the flight.
• Reclassification and repacking. If the class, UN number or packing instruction is wrong, the goods must be repacked to spec, relabelled and a fresh DGD issued, at cost and with delay.
• Offload in transit. A discrepancy found at a transit hub can strand the shipment mid-route.
• Penalties. An undeclared or misdeclared dangerous good can bring fines and, for repeat offenders, loss of the right to ship by air.
• Insurance. A loss involving misdeclared dangerous goods is a fast route to a denied claim.

How we handle hazmat air shipments

When a client product contains batteries, aerosols, solvents or anything else regulated, DE International gets the safety data sheet and battery test summary from the supplier before the order is placed, routes the shipment through a China forwarder with a trained dangerous goods team, and checks that the DGD, the box marks and the labels agree before the cargo goes to the airport. Where the item cannot fly economically or at all, we plan a compliant sea route instead. Tell us what the product contains and we will tell you how it has to move.

Excepted and limited quantities, and why they still need care

The regulations allow small amounts of some dangerous goods to move under lighter rules, which suppliers sometimes lean on to avoid a full declaration:

• Limited quantity. Small inner packagings within set volume limits, in a marked outer box. Reduced paperwork, but still marked and still subject to aircraft-type limits.
• Excepted quantity. Even smaller amounts under a stricter limit, with a specific mark and minimal documentation.
• Small lithium batteries in equipment. Below a watt-hour threshold and in limited numbers per package, these ship under a section that does not require a full DGD but still requires a lithium battery mark and, in many cases, an air waybill statement.

The trap is that a supplier declares limited or excepted quantity to skip the DGD, but the actual pack exceeds the limit, or the outer mark is missing, or several limited-quantity boxes are consolidated into one shipment that then exceeds a threshold. Acceptance staff check this, and a shipment that fails offloads. If your product is regulated, get the supplier to state in writing which provision they are shipping under and confirm the pack matches it, rather than accepting a vague assurance that it is fine to fly.

DE International sources, inspects and ships from China to Bangladesh, and handles the customs and warehousing side once the goods land. If you want help applying any of this to a live shipment or a facility you are planning, tell us the product, the volume and the location, and we will build a plan and a quote around it. Start at our services page, see how our China sourcing and buying agent service works, browse the shop, or contact us directly.