Perishables, flowers and seafood
Flowers, seafood, fresh produce and other perishables are priced by shelf life. We source wide-body and mid-size freighters against tonnage forecasts, temperature profile and rotation frequency.
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
Fresh cargo, briefly
Perishable charter serves flowers, fruit, vegetables, fish and seafood where shelf life, not distance, sets the schedule. Capacity is planned around harvest and packing windows, cool storage at origin, turnaround time and the receiving market's clearance hours.
Scope of service
Sourcing across East African, Latin American and Asian origin hubs.
What protects shelf life end to end
Sourcing across East African, Latin American and Asian origin hubs.
Series and back-to-back rotations sized to weekly and seasonal tonnage.
Cool rooms, dwell times and ULD build-up planned with handling agents.
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We do not quote capacity that has not been checked with an operator, and we do not confirm acceptance of restricted commodities before the operator has accepted them in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.
What we need to quote
Operational detail
On flower and produce lanes, reliable frequency protects value better than a larger aircraft flown irregularly. We structure rotations around your pack cycle.
Origin cool capacity, build-up time and truck arrival sequencing determine on-time departure more than the aircraft itself.
Peak windows tighten capacity and pricing. Series and back-to-back structures fix capacity ahead of the season.
Typical requirements
Anonymised examples of requirements evaluated by the desk. Not a record of completed flights.
Perishables enquiry
Tell us the commodity and the remaining shelf life — we build the flight around the cool chain, not the other way round.
Cool dolly, ventilation and cold-store access at destination are confirmed before departure.
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.
Shelf-life lanes
Perishable charters are scheduled backwards from the auction, retail slot or market opening, not from the shipper's dock.
Regions handled most often
Tell us the remaining shelf life at wheels-up — it changes which routing is acceptable more than the rate does.
Moving fresh produce by air
Perishable charter lives on cycle time. Cut-to-uplift time, cool storage at origin, tarmac exposure, flight time and the clearance speed at destination together decide the shelf life the receiver actually gets.
On established flower and produce lanes a scheduled series through the season delivers more value than repeated ad-hoc flights, because the handling, slots and cool chain are already fixed.
Where volume is repeatable, we structure a series or ACMI programme against a weekly frequency and a guaranteed payload, then flex the aircraft type as the season peaks.
That approach also fixes the ground scope: cool rooms, cool dollies, ULD build and customs handling stay the same crew every rotation.
Questions
Answers from daily desk work: payload, ready date, permits and cost drivers.
See all questionsYes. Seasonal series and ACMI programmes are the normal structure for repeating flower and produce volumes.
Chilled ranges are held with cool chain handling and, where required, active units. The achievable range is confirmed per lane and aircraft.
Cool storage and ULD build should be complete before the aircraft is on the ground, so the tarmac exposure is minimal.
Perishable charters are built around cool chain continuity and turnaround speed: pre-cooled cargo, minimal tarmac time, ventilated build-up and a short unloading window at destination. Series charters are common on lanes such as East Africa to Europe or South America to North America, where volumes justify a fixed weekly rotation. The commercial case is usually made on shelf life at arrival rather than on freight rate.
Yes, and this is one of the main uses of series and ACMI structures. Valentine's and Mother's Day flower peaks, harvest windows, fashion seasons and e-commerce quarters are planned as programmes with fixed frequency and guaranteed capacity. Booking early secures aircraft that will not be available at short notice during the peak itself.
Talk to the desk
AOG and time-critical requirements can be raised by phone or email at any time — no account required.
Keep reading
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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.
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