Air Shipment Process!
What is “air shipment”?
“air shipment”, is another way of transporting goods together with sea freight.
First of all, when we hear the word “trade”, we may have the image of a ship full of cargo sailing overseas, but in fact a variety of products are imported and exported by air every day.
In terms of volume, it is said that more than 90% of the goods are carried by sea, but in terms of cost, 30% of the goods are imported and exported by air.
Advantages of air shipment.
Air shipment provides a huge impact on the global economic activities.
One advantages are ,it is being able to transport cargo quickly. For some goods with a relatively short shelf life, this mode of transportation can ensure their freshness, and is mostly used to transport imported fruits, food and goods that need to be transported quickly.
Other advantages are, it has good security and low breakage rate because the operation process of air cargo is much stricter than other modes of transportation, the breakage situation is greatly reduced, and after the cargo is loaded on the plane, it is difficult to cause damage to the cargo , so the breakage rate of the cargo is low and the security is good in the whole cargo transportation process.
How to transport goods by air?
The manufacturer first decides the cargo dispatch schedule, and then indicates delivery time for the overseas customer.
The exporter will select their freight forwarder and ask them to book a flight. After that, information such as dispatch date, the date which they wish to book a flight, contents of the products, weight and delivery destination will be provided to the freight forwarder.
Based on the contents of the products, other required documentation, such as Invoice, PL(packing list), SIC(shipping instruction) etc. These will be provided to the freight forwarder by the exporter then according to the date of the flight, the cargo will be delivered to warehouse of the freight forwarder, which is located near the airport.
How to handle cargo before air shipment.
Explosive inspection, cargo weighing. Attach the label called AWB( Air Way Bill). Packing process if necessary. First explosive inspection “for all air shipment” is mandatory for security purposes. However, if the exporter is an AEO, which is referred to as “specified consignor”, who has good security control and high compliance ,they are exempt from explosive inspection.
The label needs to be attached, when the cargo is brought into the airline to identify which aircraft it needs to be loaded onto. The label is created based on information, such as the number of AWB and the destination. If the cargo is categorized as dangerous goods, a hazard label of the content may be required.
In terms of packing, the product needs to be completely wrapped before the cargo transports is requested to the airline. The goods will be packed in cartons, pallets or wooden boxes ,before being collected from the warehouse.
Customs warehouse and export clearance for air freight.
Export custom clearance is carried out once the cargo is delivered to the customs warehouse.
The customs warehouse is an authorized domestic location used to store overseas cargo.
The custom clearance is conducted at the customs warehouse as once the export clearance permit has cleared, the cargo will be treated as overseas cargo Instead of domestic cargo. Export custom clearance is declared to the custom, based on the information on the Invoice and PL, which are sent by the exporter using the system called EDI. They declare the exporter, the importer, the destination, the classification number of the product and its information, incoterms and the invoice price to receive the export permit. Then once the export permit has cleared ,the cargo is moved to the airline’s storage shed. The storage shed is a temporary bonded area, where they keep cargo before it is loaded onto an aircraft, or soon after cargo is unloaded.
Loading cargo onto the aircraft.
Cargo cannot be loaded directly onto the aircraft. Before it’s loaded onto the aircraft, it will be consolidated onto a large pallet or container called “ULD” .
The deadline of cargo to be brought into an airline is called “cut time”.It depends on the airline or flight schedule, but they are normally scheduled a few hours before the flight departure.
The goods arrive in the importing country by air.
The cargo is loaded on the scheduled flight, the plane departs for the destination, and then either direct or transfer to the country of import, the cargo is unloaded and stored in a warehouse. they will be stored in warehouses until an import clearance permit is obtained.
ULD will be removed and each cargo will go through checks to ensure that it has not being damaged during the transfer, and the number of the items is correct.
Once the airline informs the local freight forwarder,” arrival notice” the freight forwarder or the designated. custom clearance agency will process the import custom clearance. The required documents will be handed over from the export freight forwarder to the local freight forwarder and then to the clearing agency. For import custom clearance, EDI is also used to declare customs. Once the import authorization is issued, the cargo is loaded onto a truck as domestic cargo from the bonded area, and this will be delivered to the importer’s address on the documentation or the designated address. Just to add if the importer is authorized AEO, they are able to obtain the import authorization outside of the bonded area for import custom clearance.
