Air Cargo Supply Chain

When a demand on one place is supplied from another place with air transport as the main transport mode, an air cargo supply chain must be compiled.

Air transport is relatively expensive, but often the fastest mode of transport available to cover medium to long distances.
Therefore typical air cargo consists of goods with a high value and/or an operationally or commercially critical delivery time (high financial breakdown risk):

• Airmail, diplomatic mail 
• Live animals, hatching eggs, human organs, human remains, medical supplies 
• Express parcels 
• Perishables (food, flowers, dry-ice shipments) 
• Pharmaceuticals 
• Valuables (money, gold bars, diamonds) 
• Technical supplies (high tech, oil & gas, aerospace, automotive, ship spares) 
• Luxury consumer goods (electronics, fashion goods, accessories) 

A typical air cargo supply chain consists of the following steps:

• Shipping 
• Forwarding out 
• Air Transport 
• Forwarding in 
• Consignment 

(yes I know you'd better get to HKG the other way round but I have no other map, and besides we need this set-up further on in the process... :)

A good (2009-2010) presentation on the air cargo market can be found here on slideshare.net: Air Cargo 101.

Read about the most important differences between the passenger airline industry and the cargo airline industry here on Air Transparency: The unique air cargo industry.