Freight shipping or transportation is an extremely important aspect of businesses that deal with international shipments or import/export activities. Choosing the right freight transportation cannot only protect your valuable stuff from damage, but it can also help you save some money.
Air freight and sea freight are among the most common types of cargo shipping methods. The choice between the two depends on a variety of factors like the size or weight of the cargo, your required delivery time, type of goods, budget, and the transportation route.
If you are looking for a suitable freight forwarding service and you cannot decide between the air or sea freight you have come to the right place. This article will help you figure out which freight transportation system will work best in your specific case so keep on reading till the end.
- What is Air Freight?
- Pros of Air Freight
- Cons of Air Freight
- What is Sea Freight?
- Pros of Sea Freight
- Cons of Sea Freight
- Air Freight vs Sea Freight: Key Differences
- Budget
- Timeline
- Amount of Goods
- Shipment Safety
- Reach
- Environmental Impact
What is Air Freight?
This is a highly time-efficient form of freight shipping that involves the transportation of goods via an aircraft. This fast mode of transportation is ideal for time-sensitive shipments as it is not subjected to delays that are normally associated with sea or road freight.
Air freights offer you unparalleled reliability, speed, and global reach in a matter of days or weeks. This makes this type of freight ideal for urgent deliveries, high-value items, as well as perishable goods that need to be delivered as quickly as possible.
Pros of Air Freight
Following are a few main benefits of using air freight for your shipping needs
- This is the fastest way to forward your freight from point A to B.
- You get higher cargo visibility with real-time departure, route, and arrival information.
- Air freights give much greater reach.
- This is a highly safe and reliable mode of goods transportation with a success rate of a staggering 99.99%.
- It allows businesses to place and receive orders on demand which reduces the lead time and eliminates the storage expenses.
Cons of Air Freight
Here are a few cons of using this mode of freight
- The cost of air freight is significantly higher than sea freight.
- The cargo size and weight limitations are strict.
- Cargo that contains toxic, flammable, gaseous, or magnetic items is not allowed.
- The carbon footprint is considerable which is about 500 grams of CO2 emitted per metric ton of freight per km of the distance.
What is Sea Freight?
Sea freight refers to the transportation of goods via container/cargo ships. This mode of transportation accounts for about 90% of all transported shipments and the reason for that is its extremely affordable shipment rates.
The sea freights are able to carry extremely bulky, high volume, and a diverse range of cargo from lumber to animal feed, from salts to oil, and much more.
This type of freight forwarding usually takes longer. However, it is ideal for its lower costs which are about 4 to 5 times less than the air freight as well as the suitability to transport non-perishable goods over large distances.
Pros of Sea Freight
Here is why sea freights are a better option
- This is the cheapest freight transportation method where the rates are calculated on a per container basis.
- It is ideal for shipping large volumes of extremely bulky goods like machinery, grains, lumber, etc.
- This form of shipping is greener as it leaves a much smaller carbon footprint.
- This type of freight offers you much greater capacity.
- There are no restrictions to transport hazardous materials on sea freights.
Cons of Sea Freight
Following are a few drawbacks of using this mode of freight forwarding
- The shipment can take about 3X more time to reach the destination as compared to air freights.
- These are also subjected to delays caused by extreme weather conditions, port congestions, or customs.
- You cannot use these to transport goods to remote locations.
Air Freight vs Sea Freight: Key Differences
Following is a brief comparison between air freight and sea freight to give you a better idea
- Budget
Sea freight is considerably cheaper than air freight. Experts even go as far as to say that it costs you about 12 to 16 times more to send your shipment via air freight than it does via sea freight. This means a shipment that costs you about AED 1000 via sea freight will cost you about AED 12000 by air freight.
- Timeline
It takes sea freight about 4 to 6 weeks to deliver your cargo to the desired destination. Air freight, on the other hand, can send the same cargo in a matter of just a few days.
Air freight doesn’t need any support from other transportation like rails, trucks, etc. which allows them to send your shipment to the last mile irrespective of its location.
There are multiple flights of air freights in a day. This means even if you miss one accidentally you can load the cargo on the next one.
- Amount of Goods
The cargo capacity of air freights is just a fraction of what you get with sea freight. For example, a Boeing 747 freighter can only hold about 26,000 cubic feet of cargo.
On the other hand, a typical cargo ship like the MSC Irina can carry about 24,346 twenty-foot equivalent cargo/containers. A single cargo or container has a volume of about 1172 cubic feet. Now multiply that with 24,346 and you can estimate yourself how big the capacity difference is.
- Shipment Safety
Sea freights are considered to be less safe by some people as the stuff undergoes multiple handlings before reaching the desired locations in this case.
In air freights the cargo is dealt with great care. You can also monitor it every step of the way. Sea freights are risky as your stuff has to move in rough seas or adverse weather conditions. This makes air freights a better option for high-value goods.
- Reach
Air freights have a global reach since there are no land, water, or mountain obstructions to hinder their movement. This is not the case with sea freights which need special routes and additional support to take the freight to its right location.
- Environmental Impact
Sea freights dominate in this case since they tend to have a much lower carbon footprint as compared to air freight.
Ships emit about 10 to 40 grams of CO2 per metric ton of cargo per kilometer of transportation while the air freights emit about 500 grams under the same conditions.
Conclusion
The choice between sea and air freight eventually comes down to your specific needs or priorities. For cargo in huge amounts sea freight is the way to go as it offers more capacity with less costs.
But if urgency is your top priority or you wish to send cargo to extremely remote destinations then air freight is your best bet. By considering things like your budget, timelines, and type as well as the amount of goods you can easily figure out which of these options is the right one for you.
You can visit GlobalEX today to get the best freight forwarding services that are tailored to your specific requirements all over Dubai, UAE.