Air Transport

AIR TRANSPORT

Air transport is the newest and the least utilized mode of transport. Its major advantage being its speed, which is accompanied by high costs. A coast-to-coast shipment via air requires only a few hours contrast to days taken by other mean of transportation. The high cost of transport can be traded off for high speed, which allows other elements of logistical design, such as warehousing, inventory to be reduced or eliminated. But still air transport remains more of a potential opportunity than a reality because it is very much under utilized.

The high cost of jet aircraft, coupled with erratic nature of freight demand, has limited the assignment of dedicated planes to all-freight operations. However premium carriers provide planes dedicated for freight operations. This premium service started off with documents and has moved onto large parcels, which is an ideal service for firms with a large number of high-value products and time-sensitive service requirements.

The fixed cost of air transport is low as compared to rails, water and pipeline. In fact, air transport ranks second only to highway with respect to low fixed cost. Airways and airports are maintained by public funds and terminals are by local communities. The fixed costs of airfreight are associated with aircraft purchase and the requirement for specialized handling systems and cargo containers. But the air freight variable cost is extremely high as a result of fuel, maintenance, and labour intensity of both in-flight and ground crews.

Since they require wide-open space, airports are generally not integrated with other means of transport. However more “all freight” airports are being developed so as to reduce conflict with passenger operations.

No particular commodity dominates the traffic carried by airfreight operations. These operations are carried more on emergency basis than routine basis. Firms usually utilize scheduled or non-scheduled air cargo movements when the situation justifies high cost. Products with greatest potential for regular air movements are those having high value or extremely perishable. When the marketing period for an item is extremely limited, air transport comes into the picture, as it may be the only practical method for logistical operations.