A cargo charter puts an aircraft at your disposal on your schedule. It is the fastest option in air freight and the most expensive by a wide margin.
It is also the wrong answer more often than it is the right one. Most shipments that arrive at a charter broker could move faster, and for far less, on a priority booking with a scheduled freighter. This page covers both cases, starting with how to tell which one you are in.
What Is an Air Cargo Charter?
An air cargo charter is a flight booked for one customer rather than sold by the kilo to many. You contract the aircraft, the crew and the routing, and the aircraft flies when and where your shipment needs it to.
The difference from scheduled air freight is control rather than speed in the air. Both fly at the same speed. A charter removes the queue, the cut-off, the consolidation wait and the risk of being offloaded, which is where scheduled freight loses its days.
That is what you are buying. Not a faster aircraft, but the removal of everything that makes a scheduled booking unpredictable.
When Do You Actually Need a Cargo Charter?
Charter earns its cost in four situations. Cargo that will not fit scheduled capacity, a destination with no useful scheduled service, a deadline where the cost of failure exceeds the cost of the flight, and cargo that cannot share an aircraft.
- It does not fit. Oversized or heavy pieces that exceed door dimensions or floor loading on scheduled freighters
- There is no service. Remote fields, airports without regular freighter capacity, or a lane where frequency is too thin to hit the date
- Failure costs more than the flight. A production line down, a vessel waiting, a contract penalty, an event with a fixed date
- It cannot travel with other cargo. Certain dangerous goods by air, outsize project cargo, or shipments with security requirements that rule out consolidation
The fourth category is the one most often missed at the quoting stage. Some commodities are not refused by scheduled carriers so much as deprioritised, and a shipment that is repeatedly offloaded is effectively without service even though capacity exists on paper.
When Is a Charter the Wrong Answer?
Most of the time. If the cargo fits a scheduled freighter, the lane has frequency, and the deadline is days rather than hours, a priority booking achieves the same arrival date at a fraction of the cost.
The honest comparison looks like this.
| Your situation | What you probably need |
|---|---|
| Urgent, fits standard capacity, lane has daily service | Express or priority booking on a scheduled flight |
| Urgent, small and high value, under about 30 kg | On board courier, hand-carried on a passenger flight |
| Large volume, flexible by a day or two, regular lane | Standard scheduled freight, booked early |
| Large volume, one-off, no scheduled capacity available | Full charter |
| Oversized or heavy single pieces | Full charter, aircraft selected on door and floor limits |
| Needs part of an aircraft, not all of it | Part charter, sharing a chartered aircraft with other consignments |
Two of these are routinely overlooked.
Part charter buys a block of capacity on an aircraft someone else has chartered, which splits the cost across several shippers. It suits consignments too large for scheduled capacity but too small to justify a whole aircraft.
On board courier sends a person with the shipment as accompanied baggage on the next passenger flight. For small, urgent, high-value items it is usually faster than a charter, because there is no aircraft to position and no permits to obtain.
A broker will quote a charter because that is the product. Ask what the alternatives cost before accepting the quote, and ask specifically about part charter and on board courier, because neither is offered unprompted.
What Types of Air Cargo Charter Are There?
Three arrangements are available to a shipper. Full charter, part charter and on board courier. A fourth arrangement, ACMI, exists in the same market but is not sold to shippers.
| Type | What you book | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Full charter | The whole aircraft and its rotation | Outsize, heavy or complete loads, and routes without service |
| Part charter | A defined share of a chartered aircraft | Loads too big for scheduled capacity, too small for an aircraft |
| On board courier | A seat on a scheduled passenger flight, cargo as accompanied baggage | Small, urgent, high-value items |
| ACMI | Aircraft capacity leased by one airline from another | Airlines, not shippers |
What Is ACMI and Does It Apply to Shippers?
ACMI stands for aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance. It is a leasing arrangement between airlines, not a service sold to shippers, and a shipper searching for charter will find ACMI pages that do not apply to them.
Under ACMI an airline takes capacity from another operator, puts it to work on its own network, and sells that capacity to its own customers. The three forms differ in what the lessor supplies.
- Wet lease. The lessor supplies aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance. The lessee pays by block hour and arranges its own fuel, handling and ground services. Typically up to twelve to eighteen months
- Damp lease. As a wet lease, except the lessee supplies its own cabin crew. Same duration and payment structure
- Dry lease. The aircraft only. The lessee places it on its own air operator’s certificate and supplies its own crew. Typically two years or more
If you are a shipper, none of this is what you are buying. You are buying a flight, and the operator’s leasing arrangements behind it are not your concern. The reason it matters is that broker pages mix the two, and a shipper who starts reading about dry leases has wandered into the wrong conversation.
How Is an Air Cargo Charter Priced?
A charter is priced on the aircraft and the rotation, not per kilogram. You pay for the whole aircraft for the whole journey it makes on your behalf, including the legs flown empty to reach you and to return afterwards.
This is the part that surprises shippers. A quote is built roughly like this.
- Positioning leg. Flying the aircraft empty from wherever it is to your airport
- Loaded sector. Your flight, measured in block hours from chocks off to chocks on
- Technical stops. Fuel stops on long sectors, each adding time and landing charges
- Return or onward leg. Repositioning the aircraft away, unless the operator has backhaul
- Ground costs. Landing fees, parking, handling, loading equipment
- Permits and navigation. Overflight and landing permits for every country on the route
- Crew. Duty time, and additional crew if the rotation exceeds duty limits
Positioning is the single biggest variable, and it explains why two quotes for the same flight differ by a wide margin. An aircraft already near your origin costs far less than one flown in from another continent. An operator with a load out of your destination can absorb the return leg. One without will charge you for it.
This is also why charter pricing has no useful per-kilo comparison with air freight rates. Scheduled rates are built on chargeable weight because the carrier is selling the aircraft to many shippers. A charter sells it to one.
What Drives a Charter Quote Up?
Distance from the aircraft matters more than distance to the destination. An operator with a suitable aircraft parked near your origin will beat a cheaper hourly rate flown in from three thousand miles away.
Five other factors move the number.
- Aircraft availability. Peak season, and any period of disrupted capacity, removes options and raises rates
- Permit lead times. Some countries require days of notice for overflight and landing permits, and expedited handling costs more
- Airport slots and hours. A destination with restricted operating hours or no night movements constrains the rotation
- Cargo type. Dangerous goods, livestock and temperature controlled consignments need specific approvals, equipment and sometimes specific operators
- Loading equipment. Outsize pieces may need a nose-loading freighter or a main deck loader the airport does not have
Two commercial terms are worth reading before signing. Cancellation can cost up to half the flight value depending on where the aircraft is when you cancel, and detention charges apply if the aircraft waits because cargo or paperwork is not ready. Both are avoidable and both catch first-time charterers.
What Aircraft Are Used for Cargo Charters?
Aircraft are selected on payload, door dimensions and floor loading, in that order. The heaviest shipment does not always need the largest aircraft, and a light shipment with one tall piece may need a bigger one than its weight suggests.
| Aircraft class | Typical payload | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Light turboprop | About 1.5 to 3 tonnes | Short sectors, small fields, urgent spares |
| Narrow-body freighter | About 15 to 25 tonnes | Regional lanes, palletised general cargo |
| Wide-body freighter | About 40 to 100 tonnes and above | Long haul, volume loads, outsize with nose loading |
| Outsize specialist | Above 100 tonnes | Project cargo, items no standard freighter accepts |
Payload is rarely the binding constraint. Door opening and floor strength usually are, and both are properties of the specific aircraft rather than the type. Two aircraft of the same model can differ if one has a main deck cargo door and the other does not.
For anything near the limits, the operator will ask for exact dimensions, weights and centre of gravity per piece before quoting. Supply them accurately. A piece that turns out to be taller than declared is discovered at the aircraft, which is the most expensive place to discover it. Standard palletised loads travel on the same ULD equipment as scheduled freight.
How Long Does It Take to Arrange a Charter?
A straightforward charter on a well-served lane can move within twenty four to forty eight hours. Routes needing permits, specific aircraft or outsize handling take longer, and permits are usually what sets the floor.
The sequence runs through aircraft sourcing, quote, contract, permits, slots, positioning and loading. Permits are the step a shipper cannot accelerate with money, because they depend on each authority along the route.
Compare that against the alternative honestly. A priority booking on a scheduled freighter often departs sooner than a charter can be arranged, because the aircraft is already positioned and the permits already exist. On short notice the scheduled option is sometimes not just cheaper but faster, which is the opposite of what most people assume. The full picture on how scheduled timings build up is in air freight transit times.
How Do You Book an Air Cargo Charter?
Through a charter broker or directly with an operator. A broker searches multiple operators and has no aircraft of its own. An operator quotes only its own fleet, which is cheaper when its aircraft suits and unavailable when it does not.
Have five things ready before asking for a quote.
- Exact piece dimensions, weights and quantities, including the heaviest and tallest single piece
- Origin and destination airports, with alternates if you have flexibility
- The date and the window, and which of the two is fixed
- The commodity, including any dangerous goods classification
- Whether the cargo can be split across more than one aircraft or flight
The fifth question changes the answer more than any other. A load that can be split opens part charter and multi-sector options that a single indivisible load cannot use.
Ask every quote to itemise the positioning leg separately. A quote that will not break out positioning is hiding where the money goes, and it makes two quotes impossible to compare. A freight forwarder that handles your scheduled traffic can usually arrange charter as well, and is better placed than a broker to tell you honestly when you do not need one.
Questions About Air Cargo Charter
How much does it cost to charter a cargo plane?
Quotes vary too widely for a useful figure, because the aircraft type, the route and above all the positioning distance drive the number. Expect the quote to cover the whole rotation, including empty legs, rather than a rate per kilogram.
What is the difference between a charter and a scheduled air freight booking?
A charter contracts the aircraft for one customer on a routing you set. A scheduled booking buys space on a flight the airline was operating anyway. Both fly at the same speed, so what charter removes is the waiting, not the flight time.
What is a part charter?
A share of a chartered aircraft, bought alongside other consignments. It suits cargo too large for scheduled capacity but too small to justify a full aircraft, and it costs considerably less than chartering outright.
Does ACMI apply to shippers?
No. ACMI is a leasing arrangement between airlines, where one operator supplies aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance to another. Shippers book charters, not ACMI.
What is a positioning flight and do I pay for it?
The empty leg flown to bring the aircraft to your origin, and usually yes. It is often the largest single component of a charter quote, which is why an aircraft already near your origin produces a much lower price.
Can I cancel a cargo charter?
Yes, with a charge that depends on timing. Cancellation can cost up to half the flight value once the aircraft has begun positioning, so confirm the cancellation terms before signing rather than after.
