KES Air Freight
We offer door-to- door and door-to-airport services to over 800 hundred cities in major markets across the globe, specialising in time sensitive shipments.
Our lead times? 72-hour arrival at destination airport with Express Service, 3-5 days with Standard Service. This makes air freight, by far the fastest way to transport your goods no matter where the pick-up and drop-off points are. This service is essential when time is of the essence and the delivery is urgent.
If you are looking to transport your goods in a fast and reliable way, air freight is the way to go. Another advantage which goes hand in hand with this specific type of service is that the goods are handled less times than in any other type of freight solution. This makes air freight the go to way of transporting goods which are delicate such as electronic components, spare parts etc…
Whether you are interested in importing or exporting products, we can cater to your needs. If you are importing goods, we can handle customs clearance as well as the delivery. If on the other hand, you are seeking to export your goods, at Jet Freight we can handle the customs clearance, pick-up and dispatch too.
Where air freight is concerned, we can also offer customised solutions. If you have oversized cargo to import, we can organise the first leg by air and the second leg by sea. If your aim is that of exporting goods, we can organise the first leg by sea and the second leg by air.
At Jet Freight we also offer passive temperature control shipments by air for both import and export.
The benefits of air freight
There are three considerations you should have in mind to determine when you should ship by air:
- Speed – Think five days from a factory in China to a warehouse in the United States. Airplanes are about 30 times faster than ocean liners. Passenger jets cruise at 575 mph, while slow-steaming ocean liners move at 16-18 mph. Use this transit time calculator, based on data from real recent shipments, to get estimates of transit times for air shipping. In general numbers, air freight is usually 5X the price of trucking and 16X the price of ocean freight, according to the World Bank.
- Reliability – People are pickier than packages, which has encouraged the freight market to develop more dependable freight cargo services, and combined with better air freight data movement, shipping by air provides better air freight tracking and the knowledge that your goods will get to the right place at the right time.
- Protection – While ocean piracy is on the decline, goods are more likely to be damaged in ocean freight shipping than air shipping.
When shouldn’t I ship by air?
There are three considerations you should have in mind to determine when you might not want to ship by air:
- Cost – Simply put, air freight comes with a hefty price tag. Comparing air and ocean freight, a medium size 2000 lbs box from Mumbai, India to New York, USA, can cost $1,200 by ocean but a whopping $4,000 by air.
- Heavy shipments – Ever since the 1960s, freight shipping has revolved around shipping containers, which are great for shipping large, heavy items. Air freight is priced based on both size and weight, which can scale price very quickly.
What goods are generally shipped via air freight?
Since air cargo rates are prohibitively expensive, it’s usually limited to smaller, high-value goods or time-sensitive items, such as:
- Electronics. Steve Jobs famously purchased the entire available air freight capacity along key Asia-US routes to ship the first iMac prior to the holiday season.
- Apparel. Seasonal trends in clothing can shift fast. As a result, companies generally need to get clothing from factories to stores as quickly as possible. Again, clothing’s small size and high value make it a great trade off.
- Pharmaceuticals. Given their small size and value, medical goods are frequently shipped by air.
- Documents and Samples. DHL Global Forwarding actually got started by taking ocean freight documents by air to expedite release along a new West Coast-Hawaii ocean line. Air remains the most cost-effective method of shipping documents.
- Seasonal shipments. Whatever the product is, if there’s high international demand for a product that requires bolstering down a supply chain, it will generally be shipped by air.
Air cargo services, shipping rates, and charges
Beyond the air freight, which is calculated based on the cost above, the air freight price will also likely include:
- Fuel surcharges
- Security surcharges
- Container freight station/terminal handling charges
- Airport transfers
In addition, for door-to-door costs, the price will also include air cargo services, including:
- Customs brokerage
- Pickup and delivery
- Cargo insurance
- Accessorial charges
Are international air freight quotes and air freight prices changing?
International air freight usage is growing slowly, with less than 1% growth in 2015 among the world’s top freight forwarders, according to Transport Intelligence. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that air freight growth only hit 2.2% in 2015, down from 5% in 2014. One reason for this is increased reliance on ocean freight, which is growing more and more reliable.
Ocean freight has been getting cheaper, driven by massive ocean freight overcapacity, with up to 75% declines on key routes. On the other hand, air passenger travel has grown strongly, pushing carriers to create more and more planes. As a result, there’s more belly cargo space – space under the place to store air freight. However, this means that less than half of air freight capacity is being used.
The result for air cargo shipments is that most companies that need to import do everything in their power to take advantage of cheap ocean freight quotes, leaving only the most urgent shipments for air.