Cargo flights from the mainland directly to Europe and the United States provide new opportunities for dedicated logistics. Bypassing agents and chartering directly, the route timeliness is more guaranteed. The freight charter plan should start from several aspects:
The first is the source structure. Charter transportation usually charges according to the round-trip distance, charges a fixed rate for each flying kilometer, and charges an empty storage fee at 80% of the marked price. Point-to-point direct flights result in low reverse loading rates and high costs. We should connect the e-commerce platform collection warehouse to the charter city, radiate the national collection, and ensure a stable source of export e-commerce parcels; customs cross-customs area coordination operation, mail transfer customs collection. The route can be connected to fly through the transfer and piggyback, strive for the return import source to share the two-way cost, and enhance the import connection of key cities.
The second is to apply for government subsidies. Charter flights can keep more trade exports in the local area, include them in trade statistics, and have a flow effect, which can enhance the vitality of the local economy and drive the regional economy in the charter city. Airports such as Hangzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Xi’an, and Kunming have the hardware facilities and service levels to accommodate more international flights, and the take-off and landing costs are low. Local governments provide various preferential subsidies. For example, Zhengzhou is actively deploying global cargo aviation bases.
The third is the approval of landing rights and connecting flight rights. Charterers generally have to sign a contract with the airline one month before the cargo is shipped so that the airline can arrange the transportation and apply to the take-off and landing airports and government departments such as customs and border inspection to handle the relevant procedures for transit or entry. In order to maintain air traffic order and ensure flight safety, the route strictly stipulates the specific direction of the flight, stopover locations, route width, flight altitude, etc. The flight rights are limited. Based on the principle of “historical priority” for the allocation of civil aviation flight time, good flight rights and convenient locations in the airport are occupied.
The fourth is operation. Sort out the supporting process of ground service operation. Airport inspection also has an impact on boarding and delivery. Flights must be delivered 6 to 8 hours in advance, and airlines must seal the cabin 2 hours in advance. Electrical cargo must complete the procedures and dangerous goods operation specifications in advance. The cost of regular intercontinental cargo charter flights is lower than that of temporary charter flights, but the charter fees must be prepaid to airlines, and the capital flow pressure is high: establish a wide freight forwarding sales network in advance and match a reasonable cargo and mail structure. Usually, the charter fee includes aircraft transportation and ground service fees such as transportation, loading and unloading of goods between the warehouse and the aircraft, but does not include other fees such as distribution after picking up goods, loading and unloading containers, customs inspection and taxation; all transported goods must comply with the customs, public security, health quarantine and other legal regulations on the entry of goods in the country where the charter flight lands, and bear the corresponding expenses incurred.
The operation work after the charter flight has changed from simple guarantee to operation. The charter party has the right to sell space and allocate cargo sources, and can sell the space of the entire aircraft to freight forwarding peers, increase partners, and optimize flights, density intervals, prices and subsidies. The cargo for international flights at many airports in the mainland is transferred from East China and South China by land truck transportation. The delivery time may be slightly slower, but there is still a clear price advantage. The freight rates of some mainland charter flights are more than 30% lower than those of Hong Kong Airport, which has also attracted a lot of general cargo. In charter transportation, scientific packing and palletizing and technical improvement of loading rate are very important. Bulk cargo is usually loaded into air transport standardized containers ULD (Unit Load Device), which are mainly divided into two categories: “air container” and “combination of pallet + container net”. Taking the B747-400F all-cargo aircraft with a load capacity of about 100 tons as an example, when fully loaded with cross-border e-commerce parcels, there is no heavy cargo or flat cargo loading, and the actual “payload” of light and small packages can only be loaded to about 75 tons. Multiplying by the market freight rate, the final profit will not be enough to offset the charter fee, so it is a loss. Therefore, e-commerce special aircraft sometimes have to carry some general cargo and add warehouses through multiple channels to balance costs.