Volumetric weight decides the bill
A carton of 100 x 60 x 50 cm is 300,000 cubic centimetres, which is 50 kg volumetric. If it actually weighs 30 kg you are charged for 50. Light and bulky cargo is where air freight surprises people.
Services
Air freight for urgent, high-value and perishable cargo
For the shipments where the cost of waiting is higher than the cost of flying — and where the paperwork has to move as fast as the cargo.
Overview
Air Freight
Air freight is not simply a faster version of sea freight — it is priced differently, packed differently and documented differently. It earns its cost on cargo where a delay is more expensive than the freight itself: a production line waiting on a component, a season that closes, or produce with a shelf life measured in days.
The decision is usually arithmetic rather than preference. We will put the air and sea options side by side with the landed cost of each, so the choice is made on the numbers.
- Chargeable weight quoted up front — Air freight bills on the greater of actual weight and volumetric weight, and for general cargo the volumetric divisor is 6,000 — length x width x height in centimetres, divided by 6,000, gives kilos. We work it out from your dimensions before quoting.
- Consolidated and direct services — Consolidations for cost, direct uplift on a named flight where the deadline will not tolerate a consolidation cut-off.
- Perishable handling — Cool-chain acceptance, pre-cooling and airline temperature acceptance arranged for produce, seafood and flowers, with the shelf life planned into the routing.
- Dangerous goods — Classification, packing instructions, marking and the shipper's declaration prepared to IATA requirements — including the lithium battery provisions that catch most electronics shipments.
- Airport to airport, or door to door — Trucking at both ends, plus export and import clearance handled by our own brokers.
- Air waybill and document set — Prepared and checked against the commercial invoice and packing list before the cargo is tendered, because a document query on an air shipment costs the whole speed advantage.
Good to know
Three things that decide the cost and the timing
Speed is only as fast as the slowest step
Uplift may be hours, but acceptance cut-offs, security screening, customs and delivery are all in the door-to-door time. We quote the whole chain, not the flight.
Some cargo cannot fly
A number of goods are forbidden or heavily restricted on passenger aircraft in particular. We check the classification before booking, rather than discovering it at the acceptance counter.
Common questions
Air Freight: common questions
How is air freight priced?
On chargeable weight, which is the greater of the actual gross weight and the volumetric weight. For general air cargo the volumetric calculation is length x width x height in centimetres divided by 6,000, which gives a figure in kilograms. Give us the dimensions and gross weight of each piece and we will tell you which of the two you will be billed on before you commit.
Can you ship perishable food by air?
Yes. Perishables need cool-chain acceptance at the airline and a routing planned around the product's shelf life rather than only around the cheapest uplift. Food exports also carry their own certificate requirements at destination, which we apply for alongside the booking rather than after it.
Our other services
Sea Freight
FCL and LCL on the major lanes, with the chargeable basis and the port pair settled before you book.
Land Freight
Port haulage, domestic distribution and cross-border road freight with the border formalities arranged in advance.
Customs Clearance
Import and export declarations, tariff classification, duty assessment and FTA preference claims, handled in-house.
Documentation & Compliance
COO, phytosanitary, CITES, LPI, Thai FDA support and Section 29 duty refunds, applied for alongside the booking.