Air Freight on the GRAJ protocol. One fee. 195 countries. Join the protocol.
Air freight is bought for speed and priced on space. The number that surprises people is not the rate — it is volumetric weight, which means a light bulky shipment is charged as though it were heavy, and often several times what the scale said.
Carriers charge on the greater of actual weight and volumetric weight, calculated from the dimensions using a divisor the carrier sets. A pallet of cushions weighs almost nothing and occupies a great deal of aircraft, and the invoice reflects the second fact.
Airport-to-airport rates exclude most of what a shipment actually needs. Comparing an air quote to a sea quote without these is comparing two different services.
Air applies the strictest dangerous-goods rules of any mode. Lithium batteries, aerosols, magnets and alcohol-based liquids all carry restrictions, and quantities routinely accepted on a truck can be refused outright. A shipment upgraded to air for speed can be rejected for a reason that never applied to it before.
When the cost of not having the goods exceeds the freight — a launch date, a stock-out at a major account, a sample set for a buying appointment. Using it to recover from a planning failure is normal; budgeting for it as a default is not.