Freighter capacity for forwarders and shippers
Air freight charter moves a shipment that scheduled capacity cannot take: too heavy, too large, too urgent, or on a lane with no freighter service. We source the aircraft, compare operators and run the mission from booking to arrival.
Submit a requirement any time — no account needed · first response usually within 60 minutes · 24/7 for AOG and time-critical. Optional: business account for status tracking
The quick answer
An air freight charter books the whole aircraft for your consignment, which fixes the departure, the loading plan and the payload. It is used when volume, dimensions, timing or commodity rules make scheduled airline capacity unusable, and it is priced per rotation rather than per kilo.
Scope of service
Narrow-body to main-deck wide-body freighters sourced against your route, payload and ready date.
What you get from a broker
Narrow-body to main-deck wide-body freighters sourced against your route, payload and ready date.
Every requirement is quoted across multiple operators, not against a single fleet.
Permits, slots, handling, ULDs and trucking coordinated through one point of contact.
Direct to operator
In air cargo charter it is common for a requirement to travel through several intermediaries before it reaches the aircraft operator. Each layer adds its own commission to the same flight. We work directly with operators, so the quote you see carries one commercial layer.
Typical chain
With Cargo Charter Network
The requirement is not passed sideways to other brokers who each need to earn on the same lift.
We are remunerated by the operator. Our involvement does not add a separate fee to your charter price.
Payload, dimensions, ready date and airport constraints reach the operator unchanged, instead of being relayed through several desks.
Because we source across operators ourselves, you see the realistic market for that routing rather than whatever one intermediary could reach.
Availability, pricing and acceptance always remain with the operating carrier. Where a requirement can only be served through a partner, we say so before you decide.
How we work
Cargo Charter Network does not operate aircraft and employs no flight crew. Every flight is performed by a licensed operator we source, compare and coordinate.
Operators are checked for AOC validity, insurance, aircraft configuration and route authority for the specific mission before a price is put in front of you.
The same person handles sourcing, contract, permits, handling and flight watch, so there is no handover gap between quote and arrival.
We do not quote capacity that has not been checked with an operator, and we do not confirm acceptance of restricted commodities before the operator has accepted them in writing.
Freighter capacity enquiry
We check freighter availability against your ready date before quoting anything.
Useful when belly space, embargoes or volume rule out scheduled uplift.
How the process works
Send route, ready date, weight, piece dimensions and commodity.
We source and compare freighter options across operators and regions.
You receive a fixed proposal with price, timing, handling and conditions.
Contract, permits, slots and handling are coordinated through to delivery.
How to submit a requirement
You send the requirement straight to the desk — no account needed. We work it against operators immediately and come back with compared options.
Route, ready date, weight, dimensions, commodity and handling notes — no account, a few minutes.
Availability, payload and route permissions are checked directly with operators.
Compared operator options with payload, slots, handling and timeline — one accountable contact.
For status tracking and document exchange in the portal. Account verification is usually the same business day.
No supplier identities, margins or internal sourcing data are shared. Requirement data is treated confidentially.
Aircraft
Availability is subject to route, payload, permits and operator acceptance.
Capacity structures
The same requirement can be bought as a whole aircraft, as a share of one, as reserved space on a running rotation or as leased capacity with crew. The structure decides the price far more than the aircraft type does.
01
One shipment fills a deck, or timing and commodity rule out sharing
You control the schedule, the loading plan and the routing.
02
Volume fills part of a deck and the ready date tolerates consolidation
Cost is shared across shippers inside one build-up window.
03
Recurring volume on a lane that already has a rotation
A fixed allocation per flight, committed for a defined period.
04
Capacity is needed for weeks or months, not for one flight
Aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance leased against guaranteed block hours.
Fuel, ATC, airport charges, handling and de-icing sit outside an ACMI rate. On charter they are inside the quoted price unless stated otherwise.
Around the flight
A charter is only as good as the ground scope attached to it. These items are quoted and coordinated as part of the mission, not left to the shipper.
Export and import entries, transit procedures, temporary export for repair, preferential origin papers and the broker interface at both ends.
Pallet and container build-up, load spreading, lashing plans and guidance where packaging would fail an operator acceptance check.
Pre-carriage, on-carriage, air-ride equipment where needed, low-loaders and permitted road routes for outsize crates.
Overflight, landing and cabotage permits, airport slots, night curfew handling and diplomatic clearances where they apply.
Cool storage, active or passive units, cool dollies, data loggers and shock or tilt indicators read at each handover.
Loading supervision, attendants for live cargo, security escorts and sealed handovers for high-value consignments.
Lane examples
Full-charter enquiries cluster on lanes where belly and block-space capacity disappears before the shipment is ready.
Regions handled most often
Where scheduled freighter capacity is cheaper than a full charter, we say so and quote the split.
How air freight charter works
Scheduled air freight works while the shipment fits the aircraft, the booking window and the network. Charter becomes the practical option when a piece exceeds belly-hold door dimensions, when a production line cannot wait for the next available flight, when a lane has no direct freighter service, or when the cargo needs a controlled environment that a mixed load cannot guarantee.
The decision is rarely about price alone. Freight forwarders use charter to protect a delivery commitment, manufacturers use it to protect a production schedule, and airlines use it to protect a network when their own capacity is out of position.
Aircraft type and availability set the baseline. On top of that come positioning legs, block hours, crew duty limits, airport charges, fuel, permits, ground handling and any special equipment such as loaders, temperature units or stall systems.
Positioning is the factor buyers underestimate most. A freighter parked two hours from your origin will normally price better than a larger aircraft that has to cross a continent empty before it can load.
Route with named airports, ready date and latest arrival, total weight, number of pieces, dimensions and weight per piece, stackability, commodity description, dangerous goods classification if applicable, temperature requirement and whether you need airport-to-airport or door-to-door.
Where dimensions are still provisional, send the current figures and mark them as such. It is faster to refine a quote than to start again on new data.
Questions
Answers from daily desk work: payload, ready date, permits and cost drivers.
See all questionsIn practice they describe the same service. Air freight charter is the term forwarders and shippers use; cargo charter is the term used more often by operators and brokers.
For available aircraft with permits in place, same-day departures are possible. Realistic timing depends on positioning, crew duty, slots and overflight or landing permits on the routing.
Yes. Part charter shares one freighter across shippers whose commodities and timing align, priced pro-rata against payload and volume.
Expedited air freight is still scheduled capacity with priority handling, so it depends on the airline's flight plan, available space and any offload risk at transit points. A charter removes both the schedule and the offload risk, because the aircraft is contracted for your cargo alone. Where a shipment is too large for a scheduled main deck, or where a single day of delay costs more than the flight, charter is usually the cheaper answer in total cost terms.
Air freight uses the greater of actual gross weight and volumetric weight, with volumetric weight commonly calculated as length by width by height in centimetres divided by 6000. Charter pricing works differently, because you pay for the aircraft rather than per kilogram, but the same volume-versus-weight logic decides which aircraft is efficient for your cargo. Light, bulky cargo runs out of volume before payload, which usually points to a larger main deck rather than a heavier one.
Talk to the desk
AOG and time-critical requirements can be raised by phone or email at any time — no account required.
Keep reading
Related services
Knowledge
Send the requirement and the desk will come back with sourced options, or call now if it is time-critical.
