Introduction

For some importers, when shipping products from China, they may have to choose ship the products by air under some urgent circumstances like running out of inventory, though air freight is much more expensive than sea freight. Is there any way to save money when shipping by air? In this article, I will tell you some useful tips to save money on air freight.

7 Tips for Saving Money on Air Freight

Shipping by air can be extremely expensive, but the following are 7 useful ways for you to cut the air freight costs.

Get At Least 3 Quotes

There are three ways you can get different quotes.

Get A Quote From Your Suppliers

You can ask your Chinese suppliers to give you an air freight quote since they may have regular cooperation with the freight forwards, the price is cheaper.

Get A Quote From Express Carriers

You can get air freight quotes directly from express companies, like FedEx, DHL and UPS, which are transparent and have clear charging standards.

Get A Quote From Freight Forwarders

You can also get quotes from freight forwarders. For freight forwarders, when they need to move a lot of air cargo from one airport to another airport, they can negotiate a good discount with their familiar airlines.

So, ask for as many quotes as you can to choose from. Without comparison, you never know what the best price is.

Raise More Questions

If you want to save money on air freight, be sure to ask more questions like the price of different airlines and different flight times. It’s just like buying our own airplane tickets. The price can vary greatly from airline to airline and time to time. Sometimes the difference between a day or two, the middle cost can make a big difference. So when you get quotes, don’t make a quick decision and ask more questions to get the best choice.

Ship More on Each Shipment

If possible, ship more on each shipment to reduce the number of air shipments. Becasue when you increase the volume of air freight, the total cost of air freight may only increase slightly. A large portion of air freight costs are fixed costs, such as the costs of pickup, documentation, release and so on. They are the same fee no matter if your goods are 1000 or 2000 pieces.

Therefore, pay attention to the quantity. We can balance the total air freight quantity and the total air freight cost to obtain greater profits.

Give Up Excessive Packaging

Of course, this does not mean that you do not pay attention to the packaging of goods, but under the premise of ensuring the safety of goods, you can appropriately reduce unnecessary packaging. For example, when you have a lot of boxes to ship, you can choose to ship the boxes on a pallet, or you can ship many cartons loose. Which one is cheaper? Of course, the cost of bulk cartons is much lower than the cost of pallet loading because bulk cartons will give airlines more flexibility to find space. They only need to find space in the cargo hold for your boxes instead of finding a larger space for a pallet.

Allow the Carrier to Pick Up Later

Most shippers would like to be able to pick up their goods during the day, but not every shipment can do that. If there is a conflict with another shipment, it may be necessary to pick it up during the night on the way to the next destination, thus indirectly reducing the cost of air cargo. If you still have time before your target time, consider allowing the carrier to pick up your cargo later and they will agree to give you a discount.

Avoid Shipping On Peak Days

Avoid these major holidays can save air freight. For example, as we all know, during Christmas and New Year, air fares are much more expensive than usual. A day or two would save you a lot of money on air freight. If possible, try not to arrange air shipment during major holidays. Not only the festivals of your destination country, but also Chinese festivals, such as Chinese New Year, Mid-autumn Festival and so on. If you don’t know all of these Chinese festivals, ask your supplier or Google it yourself, try to learn it, so you can prepare and organize in advance.

Normally, Fridays are the off-season for most consumer-goods companies. They hoped to stock up on Thursday in preparation for the weekend. Thus, if there are no major holidays, shipping on weekends can also greatly reduce air freight costs.

Maintain A Long-term Relationship

If you maintain a good long-term relationship with air cargo companies, they have a strong transportation network advantage, more conducive to them finding the best choice for you, not only can you reduce the overall air cargo cost, but can also shorten the time.

Final Words

Air freight costs vary depending on many factors, such as the type of cargo, distance, and so on. But the 7 tips I’ve mentioned above can save you a lot of money on air shipping, please keep them in mind.