Air transport

The main operational methods of mandatory air freight include: scheduled flights, charter flights, consolidated shipments; express air freight, cash on delivery, and other air transport methods.

1. Scheduled flights refer to aircraft that operate on regular schedules, routes, and fixed departure, transit, and destination stations. Their biggest advantage is the ability to precisely control departure and arrival times.

2. Charter flights refer to airlines or charter agents leasing an entire aircraft or a portion of its cargo space to a charterer according to pre-agreed terms and rates, transporting goods from one or more airports to a designated destination. Generally, charter flights are cheaper than scheduled flights, but have a smaller operational scope.

3. Consolidated shipments refer to air freight forwarding companies combining several separately shipped small shipments into a single shipment and consolidating them with the airline. A single master air waybill is completed and sent to the same destination station, where the air freight forwarding company entrusts a local agent to receive and distribute the goods to the actual consignees. The biggest advantage of this method is that it can secure lower freight rates than small-volume shipments and reduces the hassle of handling shipments independently for the shipper.

4. Air Express/Urban Express. This method is particularly suitable for the rapid transport of small items such as urgently needed goods, medical equipment, valuables, drawings, key components, samples, and documents, meeting the needs of today's fast-paced society.

5. Cash on Delivery. This method involves an agreement between the shipper or their agent and the carrier. Upon arrival at the destination and delivery to the consignee, the carrier collects the freight value recorded on the air waybill on behalf of the shipper or their agent and then sends the payment to the shipper or their agent. Air freight, declared value fees, and all handling fees are prepaid by the shipper or can be paid by the consignee at the destination.

6. The use of container shipping in air transport is an inevitable trend. However, due to the special shape of aircraft cargo holds, in addition to standard containers used in large aircraft cargo holds, non-standard containers of various sizes, volumes, and shapes are generally used. The main purpose of using containers for transportation is to improve transportation efficiency, save on packaging, and facilitate turnover.