Cargo charter for freight that cannot wait for a scheduled service

A cargo charter is the dedicated hire of a freighter aircraft for a single shipment or shipper. The aircraft, the route and the schedule are configured around the cargo, not around an airline's published network. Where scheduled airfreight runs to a fixed timetable on fixed routes with shared capacity, an air cargo charter moves your shipment when and where it needs to move, in the aircraft type that fits.

Cargo charter is most often used when the cargo is too large or too heavy for scheduled freight, when the route is not adequately served by scheduled freighters, when capacity on the lane is full, or when the schedule is the problem, production lines, retail launch dates, marine industry deadlines, mining and energy project windows, and humanitarian situations all sit in this category.

Aviall Group quotes cargo charter on every aircraft type from regional 737F freighters at around 20 tonnes payload through to the AN-124 outsize freighter at 120 tonnes and beyond. Quotes are typically returned in under 60 minutes with two or three aircraft options so the cost-versus-time trade-off sits with you.

Scheduled airfreight is built for averages. Most palletised general cargo on most major lanes moves perfectly well in the belly of passenger aircraft or on scheduled freighter networks. The case for chartering a cargo plane appears when one or more of the following is true:

• The shipment is oversized, exceeds standard ULD envelopes (LD3, LD7, PMC) or main-deck pallet dimensions on commercial freighters
• The shipment is heavy in single pieces, generators, transformers, drilling and mining equipment, satellite assemblies, aerospace structures
• The shipment is time-critical and the next available scheduled capacity is not soon enough, AOG aircraft on ground, production line stop, recall, retail launch
• The route is underserved or seasonal, and the cargo cannot wait for the next scheduled freighter rotation
• Capacity is full, peak season, post-event surge, capacity withdrawn from the market
• The cargo is sensitive, high-value, controlled goods, pharma cool-chain at scale, hazardous in classes that scheduled carriers will not accept on the day required
• The cargo requires a single-shipper aircraft for security, IP or contractual reasons

Heavy lift cargo charter is the part of the market most people picture when they think of cargo aircraft, but it is also the part that requires the most operator discipline. The AN-124 outsize freighter, with a payload of 120 tonnes and a cargo bay capable of accepting pieces over 36 metres long and 4 metres high, is the workhorse for genuinely outsize project cargo. The IL-76 fills the 50-tonne tier for shorter and less infrastructure-rich routes. The 747-400F and 747-8F nose-loaders accept long pieces other freighters cannot.

Oversized and project cargo charter is engineered before it is operated. Load planning, lashing and tie-down design, runway and pavement analysis at both ends, road permits for inland movement to and from the airport, and the staging plan for ground equipment, cranes, loaders, low-loaders, are completed before the aircraft is committed. We do that work in-house with the operator and the ground handlers, not after the fact.

Common heavy lift cargo profiles include mining equipment (haul trucks, drill rigs, crusher components), oil and gas (BOPs, pumps, modules), power generation (turbines, transformers, generator sets), aerospace (engines, satellite assemblies, structures), defence and government, and large rolling stock for rail and infrastructure projects.

Most cargo charters carry at least one specialised handling requirement. We operate full IATA Dangerous Goods capability across the commonly required classes, including lithium batteries (Class 9), oxidisers, flammables, corrosives, and Class 1 explosives where appropriately licensed operators and routings are available. DG documentation, packaging review and acceptance procedures are completed in-house.

Pharma and cool-chain charter is operated on CEIV Pharma-compliant operators where the cargo requires it, with active temperature-controlled containers (Envirotainer, va-Q-tec, CSafe and equivalent) and verified cool-chain at both ends from origin pickup through to delivery into the receiving cool room or facility.

Perishable and live cargo, seafood, flowers, livestock, racehorses, primates and zoo movements, are operated against species- and product-specific welfare and handling protocols. Time-and-temperature management is built into the routing.

AOG (aircraft on ground) is the most time-pressured cargo charter category. A grounded passenger or cargo aircraft costs the operator hundreds of thousands of dollars per day and cascades into network disruption, missed connections and crew duty problems. Our AOG desk operates inside this window, engines, landing gear, APUs and large rotables are sourced, packaged, permitted and moved on the next available aircraft positioned to make the route.

AOG quotes are returned in under 60 minutes and the typical wheels-up window is 4-24 hours from confirmation depending on positioning, slots and the part itself. We work directly with airline maintenance control, MRO providers and OEM stores worldwide.

Peak-season e-commerce moves at a pace and volume the scheduled network is not always built to absorb. Pre-Singles' Day, pre-Black Friday and pre-Christmas surges are increasingly handled with block-hour charter agreements running multiple weekly rotations into the destination market, typically wide-body freighters operating on consistent schedules between Asian production hubs and North American, European and Australian distribution centres.

We design and operate these programs door-to-door: aircraft selection, slot strategy, ground handling at both ends, customs and bonded warehousing coordination, and exception management when individual rotations need to flex. The objective is the same as a scheduled freighter network, predictability, but built for the season rather than the year.

Humanitarian airlift is operated against the same operational standard as commercial cargo charter, with additional readiness for damaged or unfamiliar infrastructure at the destination. Tents, water, food, medical supplies, vehicles, generators and shelter materials move on outsize and heavy lift aircraft in the early phases of a response, then transition to wide-body and narrow-body lifts as the operation matures.

We work with UN agencies, government foreign affairs and disaster response teams, and major NGOs. Pre-positioned standing agreements and pre-cleared flight permits at common diversion fields shorten the window from request to first wheels-up.

Cargo charter is quoted as a mission price covering aircraft hire, crew, fuel, navigation and overflight permits, landing and ground handling at both ends, load planning and any specialised equipment required (cranes, loaders, temperature-controlled containers). There is no per-kilo rate, what you see is the cost of operating the aircraft for the rotation.

The variables that move the price most are aircraft type, total block hours including positioning, the airports involved, fuel price on the day, and any specialised handling. We quote two or three aircraft options where the route allows so the cost-versus-time trade-off is yours.

Indicative ranges: a regional 737F charter on a short-haul ad-hoc rotation typically sits in the low tens of thousands; long-haul 747F or 777F missions scale into the mid-six figures; AN-124 outsize charters into the high six figures and above depending on routing, positioning and ground requirements.