Air cargo operations are an essential centerpiece of the modern delivery and transportation systems. The general impact of the processes can vary depending on the perspectives based on mail services, air freight, and air-express. Although these elements possess a wide range of similarities, one should be aware of key distinctive differences. It is important to note that the given factors can be manifested in the traffic flow, schedule sensitivity, and financial leverage of load factors.
Air cargo operations themselves are comprised of fixed and core procedural components. It is stated that they might include consignee, airline, road transport, a forwarder, and a shipper (Feng et al., 2015). A forwarder is a critical consolidator and linker of an airline and shipper, whereas the road transported is responsible for ground relocation of the items, and the consignee is a receiver (Feng et al., 2015). In the case of air-express, the most evident factor is schedule sensitivity, which means that time constraints are tighter and stricter compared to other formats. A similar state can be observed in mail delivery services but to a lesser extent. Air cargo operations from the mail services perspective are more burdened by traffic flow management because the sheer number of destinations is greater. One should be aware that the uncertainty of overload and error is higher, which is why the setup needs to be more optimized.
Moreover, the financial leverage of load factors is the central issue in air freight. It is stated that the minimization of the total cost is directly dependent on aircraft volume capacity and cargo features (Feng et al., 2015). The varying elements within air freight services make it challenging to preserve proper financial leverage due to the lack of consistency in estimated cargo size, weight, and fragility. Therefore, although scheduling is mostly a common problem among all three forms of air cargo operations, there are additional issues for each type.
The procedural manifestations of air cargo operations can be demonstrated through fleet planning processes. For instance, Aviationcargo of DHL is an example of an air carrier that considers factors, such as airplane performance, cargo demand, airline goals, and operating economies (“General conditions of carriage,” n.d.). For example, Steelcase is a furniture manufacturer that offers quick shipping options, which can arrive as soon as two days (“Quick ship guide,” 2020). It relies on air freight services to deliver the products, but one can observe that the overall dimensions of the item can vary greatly. In addition, there are weight and fragility-related factors, which put more pressure on the deliverer, such as DHL.
In conclusion, air cargo operations can be examined from perspectives of air-express, air freight, and air mail delivery services. Although all of them experience schedule-based challenges, the issue is the greatest among the former. However, air freight is impacted by financial leverage factors of loading due to inconsistent features of cargo, such as volume, weight, and fragility. In the case of air mail services, there are difficulties in traffic flow management, which is due to a large number of destinations of an individual mail. The fleet planning process is also complicated by a wide range of influences that include operating economies, airline objectives, cargo-related demand, and airplane performance. A furniture manufacturer, such as Steelcase, is an illustration of air freight and air-express, where quick shipping options need to be delivered quickly regardless of the size of a product.
References
Feng, B., Li, Y., & Shen, Z. J. M. (2015). Air cargo operations: Literature review and comparison with practices. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 56, 263-280. Web.
General conditions of carriage. (n.d.). Web.
Quick ship guide[PDF document]. (2020). Web.