Written By Singapore Air Charter Admin

Air Cargo Vs Air Freight: Understanding 8 Key Differences

We live in a fast-paced world demanding expedient, reliable, and secure shipping options. Be it for businesses or individual needs.

The logistics sector is continually evolving to accommodate the dynamic requirements of various stakeholders.

However, when it comes to air shipping, two terms often create confusion—air freight and air cargo.

Understanding the difference between air freight and air cargo is important for optimising your shipping strategies. This article delves into the specific roles and benefits of each method within air transportation, highlighting their distinct features, costs and ideal use cases.

Read on to explore how air freight and air cargo cater to varied needs, ensuring your goods are transported efficiently and safely to their destinations.

We live in a fast-paced world demanding expedient, reliable, and secure shipping options. Be it for businesses or individual needs.

The logistics sector is continually evolving to accommodate the dynamic requirements of various stakeholders.

However, when it comes to air shipping, two terms often create confusion—air freight and air cargo.

Understanding the difference between air freight and air cargo is important for optimising your shipping strategies. This article delves into the specific roles and benefits of each method within air transportation, highlighting their distinct features, costs and ideal use cases.

Read on to explore how air freight and air cargo cater to varied needs, ensuring your goods are transported efficiently and safely to their destinations.

What Is Air Freight?

Air freight refers to the specialised process of transporting goods via air, typically on dedicated cargo plane or-specific aeroplanes. Unlike regular air cargo, air freight services are designed to prioritise speed, security and efficiency.

Features Of Air Freight

  1. Regulatory Problems: Air freight is governed by complex international regulations that significantly impact shipping processes.

    Freight forwarders act as agents for their customers and often develop strong relationships with transportation and customs officials as well as aircraft operators. This helps streamline the shipping process, making it more efficient.
  2. Priority on Speed and Efficiency: Air freight is not just about rapid transport, it’s designed to maximise speed and efficiency throughout the journey. From booking to delivery, every step is carefully planned to ensure that shipments reach their destinations quickly and reliably.
  3. Third-Party Logistics Provider: Air freight often involves using a third-party logistics provider, a freight forwarder. These freight forwarders manage the complexities of air freight, ensuring that goods are delivered as efficiently as possible.

Air Freight Costs

Air freight cost comes with a premium price tag. This elevated cost results from the speedy delivery times, increased freight charges, security measures and specialised care that air freight services offer.

Ideal Use-Cases

  1. Urgent Shipping of Valuable Items: If you want to transport valuable goods like artwork, antiques or expensive equipment, air freight shipment ensures the quick and secure delivery of these items.
  2. Transport of Perishable Luxury Goods: For goods that have a short shelf life, such as luxury food items or pharmaceuticals, air freight is an indispensable choice.
  3. Sending Confidential Documents: Air freight’s enhanced security measures offer a reliable option when transferring highly sensitive documents.
  4. Shipping Large Size Items: While many may assume that ocean or ground transportation is best suited for big items, air freight often provides solutions for transporting oversized or non-standard cargo.

    In such cases, custom aircraft or specialised configurations may be used to accommodate the unique needs of the shipment. This could include items like heavy machinery, large sculptures or specialised equipment.

The Benefits Of Choosing Air Freight Services

Choosing air freight services offers several advantages, particularly for businesses needing rapid, reliable and efficient shipping solutions. The benefits of air freight make it an attractive option for a range of shipping needs.

Here, we explore why air freight could be the ideal choice for your next shipment.

Transit Time

One of the standout benefits of air freight is the significantly reduced transit times. For routes such as London to New York City, air freight shipments can be completed in as little as 8 to 12 hours.

Longer routes, like Shanghai to Chicago, might take up to a week, which is still considerably faster than sea or ground transport.

This speed is important for time-sensitive goods like perishable items or when your business model relies on just-in-time delivery.

Employing a skilled freight forwarder can further streamline the process, handling the complexities of international shipping and reducing delays to ensure your cargo arrives as quickly as possible.

Operational Ease

Hiring air freight services significantly simplifies operations and cuts down on logistical complications. When you hire a freight forwarder, you gain considerable operational flexibility, which can help reduce your overall air freight costs.

Most freight forwarders offer advanced tracking systems that provide updates in nearly real time. This capability ensures you can constantly monitor your air freight shipments, facilitating excellent communication.

Whether it’s keeping your customers informed or coordinating with different parts of your company, real-time tracking helps manage expectations and readiness effectively.

Air transportation also typically encounters fewer regulatory hurdles than other shipping modes, making it a smoother process for international shipments. This streamlined approach not only saves time but also enhances the overall efficiency of the shipping process.

Global Reach

Air freight plays an important role in providing access to global markets, including services to some of the most remote locations around the world. This worldwide reach is one of the fundamental benefits of using air freight services.

Whether you need to ship goods quickly to the other side of the globe or less accessible areas, air freight offers an unmatched solution.

As a valuable component of international shipping, air freight is an important link in the chain of freight services. It seamlessly integrates with other transportation methods to ensure that goods transported are moved efficiently from one point to another.

For businesses looking to expand their reach internationally, utilising air cargo and air freight shipments ensures that goods are delivered swiftly and securely, making it an indispensable choice for global commerce.

Reduced Risk Of Damage

One of the most significant advantages of using air freight is the reduced risk of damage to the goods being transported. The nature of air transportation involves fewer handling stages compared to other shipping methods, such as sea or road transport.

This minimal handling significantly lowers the likelihood of goods being damaged during transit. Air freight services are also equipped with specialised procedures and equipment to handle small packages and smaller packages as well as hazardous materials carefully, which further minimises the risk.

Enhanced Security

Air freight offers a high level of security, making it one of the safest options for transporting goods.

The security measures at airports, including 24/7 monitoring and restricted access to cargo areas, significantly reduce the risk of theft or damage and air freight shipments include thorough inspections and monitoring, which greatly reduce the chances of theft or damage.

For international shipments, where the safety of goods shipped is paramount, choosing air shipping provides peace of mind through enhanced security and handling protocols, ensuring that your goods by air arrive in excellent condition.

Air freight services also offer a reliable schedule with dependable arrival and departure times, which are rarely affected except by severe weather conditions.

This predictability is important for planning and ensures that time-sensitive shipments, such as perishable goods, arrive when expected. The ability to track these shipments in real time adds an additional layer of security and convenience.

Air freight does not require as extensive packaging as sea freight, often involving Less-than-container Load (LCL) shipments.

This reduces material costs and lessens the handling required, further minimising the risk of damage during transit. This combination of factors makes air freight a superior choice for shipping valuable and time-sensitive goods securely and efficiently.

What Is Air Cargo?

Air cargo is a broader term that refers to goods shipped on a commercial passenger flight, sharing space with passenger luggage. While the primary function of the plane on these flights is to transport passengers, the unused cargo hold area is utilised for shipping various goods.

There are two types of air cargo, the general and special cargo.

General Cargo

General cargo refers to non-perishable goods that are transported via air without the need for special handling. These items must still adhere to specific safety and regulatory requirements during transit.

Typical examples of general cargo include household goods, office equipment, sports gear and textiles such as clothing and garments.

This category of cargo is common in air transport, offering a straightforward and efficient solution for shipping a wide range of everyday items.

Special Cargo

Special cargo consists of items that necessitate specific handling during air transport, in line with stringent INTERNATIONAL AIR TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION (IATA) regulations and carrier-specific requirements. Goods or materials included in the special cargo category are:

  • Live animals (AVI) are live animals sent by airplanes, such as chicks, horses, goats, fish, etc.
  • Perishable goods (PER) are easily damaged, destroyed or rotten goods, such as fruits, vegetables, meat, flowers, fish and plant seeds.
  • Valuable goods (VAL) are goods that have high value or valuables, such as gold, diamonds, diamonds, checks, platinum, etc.
  • Strongly smelling goods are goods that have a very strong odour, such as durian, perfume and eucalyptus oil.
  • Live Human Organs (LHO) are goods in the form of human organs that still function, such as the eyeball, kidney and liver.
  • Diplomatic Pouch (DIP), diplomatic shipment items.

Features Of Air Cargo

  • More Flexible in Terms of Timing: Air cargo offers flexibility regarding shipping schedules than air freight. It uses frequent commercial flights between cities and countries, allowing you to find flights that better align with your timing needs.
  • Lower Priority Compared to Air Freight: Air cargo is generally considered a lower priority than air freight. Freight forwarders prefer air freight shipments, especially time-sensitive ones, over cargo shipments on commercial flights. This lower prioritisation could lead to longer wait times for cargo shipments to be loaded and unloaded.
  • Shares Space with Passenger Luggage: Air cargo shares its space with passenger luggage, in which the space allocation for cargo is contingent upon the luggage volume on the flight. Therefore, there are limitations on the volume and weight of the shipment that can be accommodated.
  • Tracking Features: Air cargo carriers provide comprehensive tracking options, allowing you to monitor your shipment from when it is dropped off until it reaches its destination. These advancements in tracking technology help ensure transparency throughout the shipping process.

Air Cargo Costs

  • Economical Compared to Air Freight: When it comes to costs, air cargo is generally more economical than dedicated air freight services. The overhead for running a commercial flight is primarily absorbed by the passenger ticket sales, allowing cargo to be transported at a lower cost.
  • Price Considerations: However, it’s valuable to factor in various costs when choosing between cargo and air freight. Air cargo, being of lower priority, might not be the fastest mode of air shipping. 

Ideal Use-Cases For Air Cargo

  1. Bulk Shipments: Air cargo shipment is well-suited for bulk shipments that do not require immediate delivery. Since commercial flights have a significant amount of space allocated for luggage and cargo, it becomes a cost-effective option for shipping larger volumes.
  2. Non-Urgent Items: If your shipment is not time-sensitive, air cargo offers a reasonable alternative. Given its lower priority in the air courier hierarchy, it’s best used for items that have a flexible delivery window.
  3. Lower-Value or Less Sensitive Commodities: If you are shipping items that are not particularly valuable or sensitive, air cargo is an excellent option. The service provides a secure enough environment for the safe transport of goods. Still, it lacks the specialised handling and quicker delivery times that air freight services offer.

8 Key Differences Between Air Freight Vs. Air Cargo

Now that we have a clear overview of what these services are, let’s try a quick comparison of the two. Taking these differences into consideration will make it easier for you to choose which service you need.

1. Turnaround Time

In air transport shipping, the term “air freight” often refers to expedited shipping services prioritising speed and efficiency. Air freight services usually boast short transit times, typically 1-5 days, depending on the destination.

On the other hand, air cargo shipment may include less time-sensitive shipments and could thus afford longer transit times. When transit time really is of the essence, air freight generally takes the cake.

2. Security Measures

Both air cargo and air freight follow stringent security protocols, given the sensitive nature of aviation transport. However, the heightened focus on speed in air freight sometimes necessitates additional layers of security checks to ensure that the fast pace doesn’t compromise the shipment’s safety.

Conversely, air cargo may have more time to conduct thorough inspections, but that is not to say it is less secure—just differently.

3. Cost Effectiveness

When considering air freight and air cargo, the choice often boils down to the urgency of the shipment and your budget.

Air cargo is generally more cost-effective, particularly for larger, bulk shipments that do not need to be delivered immediately. This makes it a viable option when cost efficiency is prioritised and time is more flexible.

In contrast, air freight services are priced higher due to their expedited nature and the additional security measures they entail.

The cost of standard air freight is influenced by several factors, including the volume and weight of the package, the distance to the destination and the specifics of the cargo, such as size and type. Route planning and the selection of air freight options also play important roles in determining the final cost.

According to a study conducted by the World Bank, the cost of a standard air freight shipment can be 4 to 5 times higher than the equivalent road transport and 12 to 16 times more than sea freight.

This points to the fact that although air freight can provide faster delivery times, it may not be the most budget-friendly choice compared to other transport methods.

For those not constrained by time, choosing other transportation methods could lead to significant savings. This makes air cargo preferable for those prioritising cost effectiveness without the urgent need typically associated with air freight shipments.

4. Flexibility

Air freight services are generally more flexible regarding last-minute bookings, schedule changes and special handling requirements. If cargo needs to be expedited urgently, freight forwarders specialising in air freight can usually accommodate these needs.

In contrast, air cargo schedules may be less amenable to sudden changes or specific handling instructions due to their more systematic and bulk-oriented operations.

5. Accessibility

Regarding accessibility, air cargo usually requires you to work through freight forwarders who manage carrier space allocation. Air freight, on the other hand, can often be booked directly, providing a more accessible route for those who wish to manage their shipments.

However, it’s worth noting that many freight forwarders also offer comprehensive air and sea freight solutions for those who prefer the best of both worlds.

6. Tariff

The air cargo tariff is a standardised pricing structure that outlines the costs of shipping goods via air. This document will usually break down the costs by weight, volume, and type of shipped goods. It is a useful tool for planning and budgeting, especially for larger shipments that utilise air cargo services.

Understanding the international air freight and cargo tariff will also allow you to better compare the financial implications of opting for air cargo versus air freight.

7. Size And Weight

One key aspect to consider in air transportation is the cargo size and weight. Air freight cargo typically has stricter limitations on shipment size and weight due to the confined space available on cargo planes.

These restrictions are part of why air freight shipping service costs are high, with fuel costs being a significant component. Other contributing factors include environmental and political considerations.

For smaller shipments, managing the chargeable weight of your air freight can keep costs reasonable. Utilising industry-specific solutions such as an onboard courier (OBC) can further enhance efficiency.

An OBC is an express courier who travels directly to the destination to deliver small packages personally, saving valuable time.

In contrast, shipping large and heavy items via air can be extremely costly and generally reserved for urgent delivery. If large-scale air shipping is necessary, working with experienced freight forwarders can be important. They help navigate the complexities of cargo space and size, aiming to reduce costs where possible.

8. Package Type

Choosing between air freight and air cargo largely depends on the type of goods being transported. For hazardous materials such as flammables, corrosives and dangerous gases, specific guidelines must be followed.

Air freight carriers handle such items under strict conditions outlined in the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR), which detail the nature of hazardous substances, their dangers and the required labelling and handling instructions.

These regulations ensure that sensitive goods are shipped safely and legally, navigating customs clearance procedures effectively. A team of air freight specialists is often necessary to manage the transport of these hazardous materials, adhering to national and international laws.

On the other hand, air cargo offers significant advantages for shipping goods that require robust packing solutions. This method is particularly effective for safely transporting heavy and hazardous items, including explosives and medical supplies.

The focus with air cargo is less on speed and more on the safety and integrity of the shipment, using professional packing techniques that minimise the risk of damage during transit.

Conclusion On The Difference Between Air Freight And Air Cargo

While air cargo and air freight fall under the broader category of air shipping, they serve distinct needs in terms of turnaround time, security measures, cost-effectiveness, flexibility and accessibility.

The choice between the two ultimately depends on your specific requirements and how they align with these key variables.

For those interested in diving deeper into the intricacies of air shipping, it is advisable to consult aviation consultants. Singapore Air Charter offers bespoke solutions and consultations that can be tailored to meet your unique shipping needs.

Our expertise in providing luxurious and convenient travel solutions and bespoke freight forwarding capabilities ensures that every journey is tailored to meet your precise requirements.

To explore how our air charter services can enhance your travel and shipping strategies, contact us for a free quotation and expert consultation. Let Singapore Air Charter elevate your next journey.

Frequently Asked Questions About Air Freight Vs Air Cargo

Can I Ship Perishable Goods Via Air Cargo?

Yes, you can, but you may require special arrangements for international shipping and it could be more cost-effective to use air freight for highly perishable items.

What Are The Security Protocols For Air Freight?

Air freight follows stringent security measures, including screening and tracking, to ensure the safety and integrity of your shipment. Other security protocols for air freight include:

  • Known Shipper Programme: In many countries, only cargo from “known shippers” is allowed on passenger aircraft. Known shippers are companies that have been vetted and approved by aviation authorities. 
  • Chain of Custody: From the point of origin to its final destination, the cargo is tracked to ensure it hasn’t been tampered with. This includes seals, locks and tamper-evident packaging.
  • Restricted Access: Only authorised personnel are allowed in cargo handling and storage areas. This minimises the risk of tampering or theft.
  • Advanced Cargo Information: Many countries require carriers to provide detailed information about cargo shipments before they arrive. This allows customs and security agencies to assess risks in advance.

Other security measures may be in place, depending on the arrangements with the freight forwarder.

Is Air Cargo Tariff Applicable To Air Freight As Well?

Air freight typically has its own pricing structure, separate from the standard air cargo tariff, owing to its expedited nature and added services.

What Goods Are Generally Not Allowed In Air Freight Or Air Cargo?

Items such as explosives, flammable liquids and other hazardous materials are generally prohibited in air freight and air cargo.

How Do I Track My Shipment, Whether Air Freight Or Air Cargo?

Most providers offer tracking options, often online, that allow you to monitor your shipment’s status in real time.