Detailed explanation of air transportation process and cost structure

The definition of air transportation and its application in cross-border e-commerce

Air transportation is an efficient logistics model that uses aircraft and other aircraft to transport goods from one country or region to a warehouse in another country or region, and then local commercial express companies are responsible for delivering the goods to the final consumer. in hand. This mode of transportation is particularly suitable for cross-border e-commerce because it can ensure rapid delivery of products, improve user experience, and promote the sustainable development of enterprises. However, the cost of air transportation is higher compared to sea transportation.

Export operation process

Accept order

After the logistics salesperson reaches a cooperation intention with the customer, he usually confirms the entrustment relationship by sending a power of attorney or export cargo detailed list, and signs an “International Cargo Consignment Letter”. This document serves as the cargo owner’s entrusted agent to handle air cargo exports. basis for the goods.

Provisioning and booking operations

Logistics business personnel need to complete forecasting work based on the information provided by cross-border e-commerce customers, assign a waybill number to each shipment of goods, and formulate a pre-allocation plan based on route requirements and customer needs. When booking, you also need to consider weight restrictions, volume restrictions, door restrictions and other factors to choose the appropriate aircraft model.

Receive goods

The airline sends a “delivery notice” to the logistics company or cargo owner, and the logistics company or cargo owner delivers the goods to the airline’s customs supervision warehouse.

Import operation process

Document making and pre-entry, inspection and customs declaration

The basis for document preparation includes waybills, invoices and related approval documents. Inspection declaration usually occurs before customs declaration, and you need to apply for inspection from the customs with the customs declaration form, invoice, and packing list. Import customs declaration involves four steps: preliminary examination, document review, tax collection, and inspection and release.

Delivery and forwarding

Door-to-door delivery business refers to delivering customs-cleared goods directly to the owner; transshipment business involves transporting goods to mainland freight forwarding companies. In addition, there are customs transit and supervised transportation of imported goods, which is suitable for customs clearance in different places.

Charging and delivery

The fees cover freight charges, advance commissions, documentary declaration fees, warehousing fees, etc. The freight forwarding company will require all relevant fees to be settled before shipment.

Basic concept of fees

In air transportation, concepts such as actual gross weight, dimensional weight, and billable weight are crucial to cost calculations. Airlines may also use higher weight cutoff strategies to determine optimal rates. In addition, the negotiated freight rate and the International Air Transport Association freight rate are also important factors affecting the final cost.

The difference between traditional air transportation and air delivery

The two are basically the same in the domestic export process, document flow and business operation process, but air transportation can further extend the logistics service chain to the end consumers.

Through the above introduction, we can understand that air transportation not only improves the efficiency of cross-border e-commerce logistics, but also brings more diversified service options. However, companies need to comprehensively consider the cost-benefit ratio and customer demand characteristics when making choices.