Interior of a freighter aircraft cargo hold with roller flooring

Service line 01 of 10 — Air Freight Forwarding

Consolidated and charter airfreight out of China's major airports

We book air capacity from all major China airports to Europe, India, the UAE and the United States, on consolidated space or a dedicated charter. Send dimensions and weights, and we will tell you which figure you actually pay on before you commit.

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Overview

What this service covers

Air freight forwarding is the service we run when the delivery date matters more than the freight cost. We book capacity out of China's major airports on scheduled services, consolidate qualifying shipments under a single booking where that prices better than a direct one, and arrange part or full charters when a consignment is too large, too urgent or too irregularly shaped for scheduled space. What decides a tight week is booking discipline rather than luck: the cargo that gets uplifted is the cargo that was booked to the right route, documented correctly and tendered on time, not the cargo that was booked late.

What we move by air runs from large, complex project-oriented consignments down to small and fragile shipments, and the two ends of that range need different work. A crated machine part is a dimensions problem: whether it clears the aircraft door, the ULD contour and the handling equipment at both ends. A pallet of temperature-sensitive goods is a ground-time problem: how long it waits at the origin terminal, at a transfer point, and in the import shed before it is released. We plan both of those explicitly rather than book space and hope.

Airfreight is priced on chargeable weight, which is the greater of the actual gross weight and the volumetric weight — length x width x height in centimetres, divided by 6000. That divisor is why a light, bulky consignment can cost the same as one several times its scale weight, and why we ask for dimensions per piece before giving you a number. Where a lower pallet height, a tighter carton or a repack would bring the chargeable weight down, we say so before the booking is placed rather than after the invoice. A quote given without dimensions is an estimate, and we would rather give you a figure you can put into a costing.

Air suits four parts of our lane map particularly well: Europe, India, the UAE and the United States, where the value density of the cargo and the deadlines attached to it tend to justify the mode. Our Shenzhen head office and our Hong Kong and Shanghai branch offices handle the origin side. Turbe Tan prices air enquiries, and Joy Huang picks up shipments that need a wider plan across modes. Quote requests are answered within one business day, and if air turns out to be the wrong mode for what you are shipping, we will say so in the same reply and quote the alternative.

What's Included

What you get when you book this service

Consolidated space on scheduled services

Smaller shipments are grouped under a single booking so that a few hundred kilograms is not priced as though it were a direct booking of its own. You hold a house air waybill naming you as shipper or consignee, with a number you can track from acceptance to arrival.

Charter and part-charter capacity

For cargo that will not fit standard contours, for dates where scheduled space is unavailable, or where the cost of waiting exceeds the cost of the aircraft. Where a charter is plausible we quote it alongside the scheduled option, so you can see precisely what the extra speed is buying.

Chargeable weight worked out both ways, before booking

We calculate actual gross weight and volumetric weight from your packing list, tell you which one governs, and flag where packing changes would move the figure. Airlines generally round the result up to the next half kilogram, so we work to the same rounding, and we confirm the divisor and rounding that apply to your booking before you commit.

ULD build-up or loose loading, checked against the aircraft

We advise whether your cargo should be built onto a pallet or container ULD or tendered loose, and check piece dimensions against ULD contour, aircraft door and handling limits before a flight is promised. A single tall crate can rule out passenger-belly capacity on a route entirely, and it is better to know that at enquiry stage.

Air waybills, export clearance and destination customs

Air waybill instructions, commercial invoice, packing list and export declaration at origin; import declaration, duty and tax, and release from the airline shed at destination. We check HS codes against the invoice description before filing, because a mismatch stops the shipment at the origin airport rather than at the destination.

Dangerous goods by air

DG is one of our specialisms. By air it runs under the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations: classification and UN number, proper shipping name, packing instruction, quantity limits per package, marking, labelling and a shipper's declaration. We confirm the class and quantity are accepted on the actual route before quoting, because acceptance varies by carrier and by aircraft type.

Fragile, temperature-sensitive and high-value cargo, with cargo insurance

Where cargo is fragile or temperature-sensitive, the plan is built around ground time rather than flight time: collection timing, terminal dwell, transfer points and the clearance window at destination. Send the temperature range and any shelf-life limit and we will confirm what the routing can support before we quote. Cargo insurance is available across all our modes and is worth taking on air in particular, since carrier liability is limited by weight rather than by the value of the goods.

How It Works

From enquiry to delivery

Enquiry, and the chargeable weight calculation

Send piece count, dimensions per piece in centimetres, gross weight per piece, the commodity and its HS code, the ready date, the destination airport or door address, and the Incoterm. We calculate actual and volumetric weight, tell you which governs, and point out anything that would change it. Turbe Tan prices air enquiries and you have an answer within one business day.

Routing, airport choice and capacity check

We select the departure airport from where the cargo actually sits and which routes serve your destination, not out of habit. We check commodity acceptance, piece dimensions against the equipment flying that route, and whether consolidation or a direct booking prices better on your date. If anything exceeds door or contour limits, you hear it at this stage, not after collection.

Packing, palletising and collection

We confirm the packing suits air handling — forklift access, corner and edge protection, moisture barrier where the routing warrants it, and secure strapping for cargo that will be stacked in a ULD. We collect from the factory or warehouse by road and can stage the cargo at a warehouse where a consolidation or a fixed tender time makes that useful.

Documentation and export customs

Air waybill instructions, commercial invoice, packing list and export declaration are prepared and checked against each other. Where the shipment requires a dangerous goods declaration, an export licence, a certificate of origin or a health or phytosanitary certificate, we tell you which document is needed and who issues it, well before the cargo reaches the terminal.

Acceptance, security screening and uplift

Cargo is tendered to the handling agent, security screened, accepted against the air waybill and uplifted. You receive the air waybill number and we monitor each leg, confirming transfers where the routing is not direct. If a piece is rolled to a later flight, we tell you when it happens and what the recovery plan is.

Destination clearance and onward delivery

Import declaration, duty and tax, release from the airline shed, and road delivery to the consignee's door where you have bought door terms. We set out what the destination side will require from you before the aircraft lands, so clearance is not waiting on a document that has to be chased across time zones.

Fit

When this is the right service — and when it is not

Best for

Production-critical spares and machinery parts, where a stopped line costs more per day than the entire freight bill.
High-value, low-weight goods — electronics, instruments, precision components — where freight is a small share of the cargo value.
Time-sensitive goods with a short shelf life, moving to Europe, the Gulf or the United States, where we can confirm the routing supports them.
Samples, pre-production runs and launch stock that has to land before a fixed date: a trade show, a tender deadline, a retail drop.
Small, fragile or irregular pieces that are safer with fewer handovers than a groupage ocean move involves.
Recovery shipments — a short-shipped balance, or cargo that missed its vessel — flown to protect a delivery date already promised.

When another mode fits better

Air is the wrong mode more often than it is the right one, and the arithmetic usually says so quickly. If your cargo is dense and low in value per kilogram — raw materials, hardware, furniture, bulk consumables — sea freight is usually much cheaper per kilogram, and the saving will outweigh the cost of the extra time; that is an FCL or LCL booking. If the cargo is bulky and light, the /6000 divisor works against you and you pay for the air the goods displace rather than for what they weigh, so check the volumetric figure before you commit to the mode. For Europe, Central Asia and Russia there is a middle option that buyers often overlook: rail is a core strength of ours, and a China–Europe or China–Central Asia rail booking sits between air and sea on both cost and time, which is usually the right answer for a restock that is late but not critical. Air is also simply unavailable for some cargo — pieces beyond aircraft door and ULD contour limits belong on a flat rack, an open top or a break-bulk vessel, and several dangerous goods classes that move readily by sea are forbidden in the air or restricted to quantities too small to be useful. Tell us the deadline and the budget in the same message and we will price air against rail or sea, rather than assume that the mode you asked for is the one you need.

Reference

Chargeable weight, worked through

Air freight is billed on whichever is greater: actual gross weight, or volumetric weight calculated as length x width x height in centimetres divided by 6000. Airlines generally round the result up to the next 0.5 kg, and we confirm the divisor and rounding that apply to your booking. These are illustrative arithmetic examples of the industry-standard formula, not rates or quotations.

Cargo example	Actual gross weight	Dimensions (cm)	Volumetric weight (L x W x H ÷ 6000)	Chargeable weight	Which figure governs
Machinery spares, 1 crate	180 kg	100 x 80 x 60 = 480,000 cm³	80 kg	180 kg	Actual weight. Dense cargo is the case where air pricing is at its most forgiving.
Electronics, 20 cartons	240 kg	50 x 40 x 30 each = 1,200,000 cm³ total	200 kg	240 kg	Actual weight, with little margin. A slightly larger carton would flip it.
Apparel, 6 cartons	90 kg	60 x 40 x 40 each = 576,000 cm³ total	96 kg	96 kg	Volumetric, narrowly. Worth checking whether the cartons can be compressed.
Crated instrument, 1 piece	45 kg	110 x 90 x 90 = 891,000 cm³	148.5 kg	148.5 kg	Volumetric. You are paying for the crate, not the instrument inside it.
Light-density goods, 1 pallet	120 kg	120 x 100 x 150 = 1,800,000 cm³	300 kg	300 kg	Volumetric, by a wide margin. Reducing pallet height is the cheapest saving available.

FAQ

Air Freight Forwarding — common questions

On chargeable weight: the greater of the actual gross weight and the volumetric weight, where volumetric weight is length x width x height in centimetres divided by 6000, generally rounded up to the next half kilogram. On top of the freight itself sit airline surcharges, terminal handling at both ends, customs work, and any road leg to or from the airport. We break those out as separate lines in the quote so you can see what is freight and what is handling, and we confirm the divisor and rounding that apply to your booking.

Piece count, dimensions per piece in centimetres, gross weight per piece, a plain description of the commodity with its HS code, the ready date, the origin address, the destination airport or door address, and the Incoterm. For dangerous goods, add the safety data sheet. For temperature-sensitive cargo, add the required temperature range and the shelf life. With that we come back within one business day; without dimensions, anything we give you is a guess rather than a quote.

The master air waybill is the contract with the airline covering the whole consolidation. The house air waybill is issued for each underlying shipment within it and names the actual shipper and consignee. On a consolidated booking you hold a house air waybill; on a direct booking there is a single air waybill covering your cargo alone. Either way you get a number to track against, and we tell you which structure your shipment is moving under.

Dangerous goods are one of our specialisms. By air, DG moves under the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations, which set the classification, UN number, proper shipping name, packing instruction, quantity limits per package, marking and labelling, and the shipper's declaration that must accompany the cargo. Not every class or quantity is accepted by air, and acceptance differs by carrier, aircraft type and route. Send us the safety data sheet and we will confirm whether it can fly before we quote it.

Consolidated or direct scheduled space handles most shipments and is almost always the cheaper answer. A charter earns its place in three situations: the cargo will not fit the contours available on the route, scheduled capacity is not available on the date you need, or the cost of waiting is higher than the cost of the aircraft. Where a charter is realistic we price it next to the scheduled option rather than presenting it on its own.

We handle export through all major China airports, so the choice is made on the shipment rather than on convenience: where the cargo is produced, which routes serve your destination, what capacity exists on your date, and what the inland leg costs from the factory. The quote names the departure airport and includes the road collection from your supplier's door where you need it.

Send us the details and we will tell you what the routing can support before we quote. What determines whether temperature-sensitive goods arrive in condition is mostly time on the ground rather than time in the air — the collection window, dwell at the origin terminal, any transfer point, and how fast clearance releases the cargo at destination. Tell us the temperature range and the shelf life and we will plan the routing around them, including any health or phytosanitary certificate the destination requires, and say so plainly if the route cannot hold the conditions your cargo needs.

No, not in the way most shippers assume. Carrier liability for air cargo is capped by weight, not by the commercial value of the goods, and it does not respond to every kind of loss. Since air cargo is usually high in value relative to its weight, that gap tends to be large. Cargo insurance is available from us across all modes — send the commercial invoice value and we will include a premium in the quote so you can compare the cover against the exposure.

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External standards bodies and government sources, linked for reference. Transeasy is not affiliated with these organisations.