The EU AEO status was granted by the Luxembourg and Italian customs administrations on behalf of the Directorate General for Taxation and Customs Union of the European Commission. It is recognized by all 28 EU member states and by third countries that have a mutual recognition agreement (MRA) with the EU.

The status was awarded after an in-depth procedure that included application, qualification and on-site audit phases during 2013. Each of Cargolux Airlines and Cargolux Italia were required to fulfill a range of criteria that included amongst others a compliance record with customs regulations, a satisfactory system of commercial and transport records management and appropriate safety and security standards.

As AEO operators, both airlines can offer simplified customs access for shipments throughout the EU, using electronic messages instead of paper documents. Additionally, they can benefit from customs safety and security control facilitations when goods enter or leave the customs territory of the EU. This can be extended to the international supply chain in countries holding an MRA with the EU, currently including the USA, Japan, Norway and Switzerland; while China and Canada are in negotiation.

The AEO status will also prove valuable when new EU Union Customs Code regulations are implemented in the coming years.