Cargo and heavy-lift freighter charter

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• Capacity is full, peak season, post-event surge, capacity withdrawn from the market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