Pricing structure and cost drivers
There is no list price for a freighter. A cargo charter is priced per mission, built from aircraft availability, positioning, block hours and the ground cost at both ends. This page explains how the number is assembled and where it can be improved.
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
Cost at a glance
Cargo charter cost is driven by aircraft type and block hours, positioning legs, fuel, crew duty limits, airport and handling fees, permits and demand on the lane. There is no list price: the same route can differ substantially depending on where a suitable freighter is when you ask.
Scope of service
Every charter is quoted against the specific route, aircraft and window, not a published rate card.
How we keep quotes comparable
Every charter is quoted against the specific route, aircraft and window, not a published rate card.
Empty legs to and from your airports often move the price more than the aircraft type itself.
You see what is included: flight, handling, permits and any equipment or trucking.
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.
Price indication
Set the mission parameters and get a realistic market range in seconds — non-binding, before you speak to anyone.
Calculator
Route distance
Cargo type
Mission type
Payload
Aircraft category
Estimated range, round trip
Indicative rangeUS$240,000 – US$290,000
≈ €220,800 – €266,800
Aircraft category: Medium freighter
Approx. block time: 17 h (two sectors)
Indicative, non-binding market ranges in USD (EUR converted at 0.92). Final pricing depends on operator availability, season, fuel, routing and cargo specifics. A binding quote follows a documented requirement.
No account needed · first response usually within 60 minutes
Detailed cost breakdownHow 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.
Indicative pricing
Prices only mean something with a route, a date and a payload. Give us those three and we return a range.
You receive a range with the cost drivers named — positioning, handling, parking, permits.
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.
Cost scenarios
Charter price follows block hours, positioning and ground reality. These anonymised pairings show where the money actually goes.
Regions handled most often
Every quote names positioning, block hours, handling, parking, permits and fuel separately so two operators stay comparable.
What drives a charter price
Scheduled air freight is sold per kilogram because the airline fills the rest of the aircraft. In a charter the buyer contracts the aircraft, so the cost is the cost of operating that aircraft for the mission, divided by nothing. Whether the payload used is 40 tonnes or 20 tonnes, the aircraft still flies the same sectors.
This is why loadability advice matters. Choosing an aircraft one size too large can add a six-figure difference on a long sector without moving a single extra kilogram.
Aircraft type and size, positioning distance, total block hours, fuel price at the uplift stations, airport and handling charges, permits and overflight fees, and any special handling such as temperature control, dangerous goods segregation, stall systems or heavy-lift loaders.
Timing sits across all of them. A flexible ready date lets us match an aircraft that is already close to your origin; a fixed hour on a fixed day removes that option.
Give a date window rather than a single hour where the operation allows it. Confirm dimensions early so the aircraft is sized correctly. Consider a nearby airport with better freighter handling and fewer slot restrictions. Where volume is recurring, ask for a series or ACMI structure instead of repeated ad-hoc flights.
For repeated lanes, a guaranteed block hour programme almost always prices below the sum of individual charters.
Questions
Answers from daily desk work: payload, ready date, permits and cost drivers.
See all questionsIt depends on aircraft type, sector length and positioning. A short narrow-body freighter sector and an intercontinental main-deck wide-body mission are orders of magnitude apart, which is why every requirement is quoted individually.
Our proposals state exactly what is included and how long the price holds. Availability moves quickly, so quotes carry a validity window.
Our commercial terms are stated in the proposal. You see one price for the mission with the inclusions listed.
Charter is priced per mission, not per kilogram, so the total depends on aircraft type, block hours, positioning legs, fuel, crew duty limits, airport and handling charges, permits and any waiting time. A regional turboprop movement can sit in the low five figures, a narrowbody freighter sector in the mid five figures, and an intercontinental widebody or outsize rotation well into six figures. The realistic figure for your lane comes from the actual routing and dates, which is why our desk quotes against a defined requirement rather than a headline rate.
Five factors dominate: where the aircraft is before your flight, the flown distance and resulting block hours, the fuel uplift and fuel price at the departure station, the ground cost at both airports, and the regulatory work needed for the routing and the commodity. Positioning is the one buyers underestimate most, because an empty leg from the aircraft's current base to your loading point is charged even though no cargo moves on it. Flexible dates often reduce the positioning cost more than any negotiation on the hourly rate.
Only when the aircraft is well filled. A charter has a fixed mission cost, so the effective rate per kilogram falls as payload rises, and a full main deck can beat express rates on dense cargo. For small consignments scheduled freight is usually cheaper, and the case for charter is then made by control of timing, single-piece dimensions or handling requirements rather than by unit rate.
Freighters are rarely parked where the cargo is. Positioning is the flight that brings the aircraft to your loading airport, and depositioning is the return to its base or next mission. Both consume crew hours, fuel and airport charges, so they form part of the mission price. Choosing an airport close to an operator's home base, or accepting a slightly wider departure window, is the fastest way to reduce that share.
The most common variables are aircraft waiting time at loading or unloading, changes to the cargo after the offer, deicing in winter operations, extended overflight routings caused by airspace restrictions and fuel price movements on long lead times. Each of these is stated as an assumption in the offer, with the mechanism for adjustment. If the cargo and dates stay as described, the price stays as quoted.
Talk to the desk
AOG and time-critical requirements can be raised by phone or email at any time — no account required.
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Knowledge
Send the requirement and the desk will come back with sourced options, or call now if it is time-critical.
