The benefits of airfreighting for exporters

A freight forwarder is a company committed to looking after the safe passage of your product from its departure point at its country of origin, to its arrival point at the destination country. "Forwarders will look at: What sort of business is it? What's the commodity, what are they exporting? Where is it going? The weights and volumes. Once that's ascertained, your freight forwarder will do all the documentation for you. They'll look after your insurance, security, fuel charges, and make sure their agent at the other end looks after your business," explains Templeman.

"Along with the homework you do in sourcing a good freight forwarder, you should get quotes. Shop around. There's a heap to choose from; about 200. The bigger companies have international offices and a lot of them are IATA [International Air Transport Association] accredited. The airfreight industry is highly regulated and highly controlled."

Different freight forwarders have different strengths so the right freight forwarder will depend on your product. Templeman recommends asking advice of any of the airfreight councils (see box) or industry associations such as AFIF (Australian Federation of International Forwarders), CBFCA (Customs Brokers and Forwarders Council of Australia) or ICHCA (International Cargo Handling and Coordination Association).

On the perishable front, Templeman notes that the AFCQ has been trying to establish a 'fresh port' in Queensland for some years. Perth has one, and the council is eyeing off one of Queensland's three international airports—Cairns, the Gold Coast and Brisbane—as possible sites.

A fresh port is a facility dedicated to the transport of perishable products. The advantages of having a fresh port are the availability of purpose-built resources and use of specialised transport equipment, and the potential to reduce handling that might delay its journey from producer to plate. "Instead of going to a freight forwarder then to the cargo transport, it might go from the grower straight to the complex to make things seamless. That should keep the rates low; we don't want double handling or double costs," he says.

Time is money

Airfreight isn't restricted to perishables, however. Templeman lists other time sensitive items that travel by air, including commercial samples, componentry, scientific instruments and even mining equipment. "It might be a prototype that may be holding up production of something," he suggests. "Wine is very expensive to airfreight, but there might be a pallet going to an international wine show or a big ambassadorial function or an Aussie function where they can show off Aussie wines."

Pharmaceutical and biological products also regularly travel by air; Templeman mentions that inoculations for equine influenza flew in to alleviate the recent epidemic. He also notes that many biotechnology companies that import products for research and development may then export them at a later date. "Biotech is growing. Products might come in from the States and then something happens to it here and then it goes out elsewhere, even just to research complexes," he says. "When we get the fresh port, treatments, blood and body parts will have to be looked after."

The substantial increase in the volume of airfreight is testament to the importance of this mode of service, but airfreighting is not immune to obstacles that may prevent it from reaching its potential heights. Factors such as security, safety, infrastructure, the environment and the skills shortage have weighed heavily on the rise of airfreighting rise.

Templeman nominates air traffic as a particular problem, considering that many of Australia’s main airports are expanding and the skies are becoming more congested. The good part is something’s being done: “The air industry as a whole will be affected by increased air traffic and parking problems, but the industry has noticed it and planned for it,” he says.

Exporters shouldn’t discount the possibility of air-sea freight as another option, if their load isn’t too time-sensitive. Air-sea combinations usually involve shipping commodities by air to a centralised location such as Singapore, then by ship to their final destination. This is handy for the budget conscious, considering that the frequency of container ships to Australia is not as high as some of the Asian ports.

Airfreight clearly has advantages for time-sensitive, high value items and may just be the right fit for your cargo. Was that chicken or fish?