Air Transport

Air logistics has become an almost indispensable element of foreign trade, both due to the high value of some goods and the immediacy of delivery that end customers demand.

Air transport offers great advantages in transporting cargo from one country to another or within the same country, but you must know how it operates to assess whether it is a profitable service that offers the greatest benefits to your company.

Using this type of shipping works best for perishable or very high-value products that require quick replenishment and those whose buyers demand urgent delivery.

In recent years, the rise of e-commerce has increased the demand for air service as consumers have become demanding about delivery times and safety, and their satisfaction has become an element of competitiveness for companies.

What are its advantages and to what extent can it be taken advantage of?

By its nature as a means of transport that shortens distances, air transport is ideal for the export of certain goods. Among its advantages are:

• Speed ??of deliveries. This has a positive effect on both customer satisfaction and your financial costs as it ensures that high-value goods are in transit less time and you recoup your investment sooner.
• Wide coverage and penetration. It makes possible the strategic connection with a network of airlines that facilitate the transshipment and guarantee that their products reach destinations far from seaports.
• Integrity and security of your shipments. By spending less time on the move, your cargo is less exposed to deterioration, damage and loss from theft or loss.
• Documentation simplification. Compared to sea transport, the air modality requires fewer processes that are simpler.

However, air transport goes as far as the budget allows. One of its limitations is its higher cost, its lower cargo capacity compared to a ship and the exhaustive requirements for the transfer of certain products or substances considered risky.

That's why it's important that you carry out a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether your products, due to their high value, their potential for obsolescence or the immediacy of your customers, are worth paying more for transporting your cargo by plane.

How does the logistics chain for air transport work?

In the air transport of goods destined for importation, several actors intervene:

• Customers, which can be both issuers (or suppliers) and recipients
• Freight agencies
• Customs, which process the internment or departure of the cargo
• Aviation companies in charge of the transfer
• Providers of receiving, storage and ground transportation services to the final destination

Those responsible for coordinating all of them and for the services they offer are the integrators or logistics companies.

The air logistics chain includes these steps:

1. Request by the sender to an integrating agent for the shipment of its goods by air to deliver it to the same place for only one recipient.
2. Management by the integrator of ground transportation to the airport.
3. Processing of documents required for export.
4. Delivery of this documentation to the customs administration for review and authorization.
5. Cargo management by the handling agencies, which will be in charge of it in the storage terminal and on the plane's ramp and depots.
6. Once the merchandise is accommodated in the aircraft's cargo warehouses, it becomes the responsibility of the airline during its transit until its arrival at the final destination.
7. Upon arrival, the handling companies intervene again, and are in charge of unloading and transferring it to the cargo terminal.
8. There, the cargo handling agent proves that the goods correspond to the indicator in the documentation.
9. Then, a customs agent receives such documentation and processes the internment of the cargo in the customs administration.
10. Finally, the imported goods are delivered to the recipient for distribution to the final consumer.

Door to door logistics

Finally, and so that you are clear about the type of air service you should hire, it is important to differentiate between what represents an air cargo and what is a package, which is especially useful for companies that are dedicated to e-commerce.

When the distribution of a product requires the use of different means of transport, different legal codes intervene that will call it different modes, even if it is the same cargo.

According to Mexican laws and international legal frameworks, a package is a load that does not exceed 31.5 kilos in weight and is transported by land under the protection of a waybill or service guide. As soon as an airplane is used for its transport, it is considered air cargo and will be supported by an air guide. When it's back on land and transported in pickup trucks or trucks, it's back to being a package.

The combination of these two services is known as multimodal logistics and is what makes up a door-to-door logistics chain, that is, from the moment the sender entrusts the cargo to a logistics company until it reaches the final recipient.

The complexity of air logistics processes, which include both the management of goods to ensure their integrity and delivery on time and the processing of required export and import authorizations, demand that you seek an ally that provides you with customized solutions.