B-1-1- Air transportation


One transport solution for intra-Community and/or external exchanges is air transportation. Though many prefer land transportation intra-community transport, air transportation saves time.

Contrasting with land and maritime transport, air transportation is faster but more expensive. Generally, the faster the transport, the more expensive it is.

Il est possible de travailler en direct avec une compagnie aérienne sans passer par un intermédiaire, pour cela il suffit par exemple que l'exportateur se charge des formalités inhérentes à ce type de transport.

It is possible to work directly with an airline company without an intermediary, in which case it's only necessary that the exporter handles the formalities inherent to this type of transportation.

1-1-1- Different types of service providers for air transport.

Service providers include forwarders, forwarding agents, air freight agents (IATA), air freight consolidators or, for the other types of transportation, licensed customs agents.

1-1-2- Air transportation: specifics

In general, air transportation is used as part of multimodal transport or a combined transport. Just like the other types of transportation, air transport has its own insurance and documents.

It is therefore recommended to use a freight forwarder for this type of transport. The freight forwarder will undertake all necessary steps including trans-shipment on air containers, if necessary, and customs formalities.

1-1-3- Air transportation: a dangerous mode of transport

Like all transport, air transport faces specific constraints such as risk due to the adverse weather conditions and the risk of airport theft.

1-1-4- Air transport: prices

The price of air transport depends heavily the weight and the volume of the goods, and on the destination.

Note that there is an AWB tax, a fuel surcharge tax, a security tax and a risk tax.

1-1-5- Legislation

Air transportation is governed by the Warsaw convention or, in cases of disputes, the Rome convention that can be used with Article 4-4.