Mode of Transport for International Air Freight of Goods
Understanding International Air Freight Services
The transportation method of international air freight services has won a considerable market share for its efficient, safe, and timely delivery, greatly reducing the delivery time. It has the characteristics of speed and flexibility, and is an essential way of transporting valuable goods, fresh goods, and precision instruments in international trade. Air freight has won a considerable market share for its super-high efficiency of speed, safety, and punctuality, which greatly shortens the delivery time and plays a significant role in accelerating the turnover and circulation of logistics supply chains. Major airlines have invested a lot of flights to take a share of this cake. However, compared to sea freight, air freight is relatively expensive, and the cost ratio of sea and air freight is about 1:10 for high time requirements.
What are the transportation methods of International Air Freight Services?
International air freight services are divided into regular air freight transport and express services. The billing weight calculation formula for regular air freight and express is different. One cubic meter of regular air freight equals 167KG, and one cubic meter of international express is equal to 200KG. The volumetric weight and gross weight are the larger of the two. Under normal circumstances, international express will be more cost-effective if the chargeable weight of the goods does not exceed 30KG. If the goods exceed 30KG, regular air freight should be compared, and the price of air freight should be more favorable.
In addition, regular air freight is more flexible than express. The customs documents are more flexible. Express customs declaration generally relies on the export invoice provided by the shipper. Moreover, this invoice should always accompany the goods to the destination port. Regular air freight customs declaration, because the shipper's invoice can be not accompanying the goods, can flexibly solve some problems of customs declaration if the export invoice is different from the import invoice in China.
What are the methods of International Air Freight Services?
The main transportation methods of international air freight services are scheduled flight transportation, charter transportation, centralized consignment transportation, and air express services. The following is a brief introduction to each transportation method:
Scheduled flight transportation refers to an airplane with a fixed sailing time, route, and stopover airport. Usually, it is a combined passenger and cargo airplane with a small cargo compartment and high fare. However, due to the fixed sailing time, this method is conducive to the customer's arrangement of transporting fresh or urgently needed goods.
Charter transportation means that the airline leases an entire airplane to one or several charterers according to agreed conditions and rates to transport goods from one or several airports to the designated destination. Charter transportation is suitable for bulk cargo transportation, with lower rates than scheduled flights but longer delivery time than scheduled flights.
Centralized consignment transportation can use scheduled flight or charter transportation. This consignment method can reduce freight charges and is one of the main businesses of air freight forwarding.
Express delivery is currently the fastest method in international air freight services, which is cooperated by the department specializing in this business and airlines to transport urgent items in the most rapid way.
