Air Charters Provide Fast Relief to Automotive Production Line Shortages

DATE: 06/24/19

Air charters on widebody B767 freighters are a customized air cargo solution ensuring the shipment departs and arrives based on customer needs.

When supply chain disruptions occur and automotive-related freight can’t wait, air freight charters are a growing alternative to truck or ocean shipping. Air charters on widebody B767 freighters are a customized air cargo solution ensuring the shipment departs and arrives based on customer needs.

Amerijet International Airlines, a Miami-based all-cargo carrier, has long served the automotive market, flying components and production parts on behalf of OEMs, first-tier and second-tier suppliers to meet manufacturing deadlines. Seven days a week on a 24/7 basis, Amerijet prides itself on its ability to respond with its widebody B767 freighter aircraft on relatively short notice, often within hours.

“On our primary lanes from Mexico to the U.S. and Canada, our B767-200F freighters are able to upload 92,000 pounds of freight, in 12,500 cubic feet of main and lower deck capacity. In comparison, most of the automotive air charter market relies on smaller aircraft for lower gross weight and cubic space of freighter capacity,” said Glen Gates, Director, Charter Sales at Amerijet. The B767 freighter features 100-inch high main cargo doors to accommodate oversize freight and double stacking of palletized freight which isn’t possible on smaller aircraft.

Amerijet automotive charters

In the busy spring 2019 automotive production season, Amerijet positioned one of its B767-200F freighters near the U.S.-Mexico border, in Laredo, Texas, to quickly and efficiently meet customer needs, such as expediting components and parts from the border or within Mexico on air charters to automotive factories in the Midwest and Southeast U.S.

Amerijet works primarily with freight forwarders and charter brokers to arrange all types of charters. “The OEMs and suppliers often find that developing and maintaining a relationship with charter industry experts like forwarders and brokers saves them time and money in the end. Charters are far less costly than shutting down an assembly line,” Gates said.

Most of the automotive-related charters are all-inclusive. Charter brokers and forwarders coordinate with the contracted air cargo warehouse and ground handlers to build, load, unload and deliver time-definite production material. “Keeping the assembly line running is our prime objective. The coordination requires a hands-on approach and often fancy footwork to keep all the moving parts in order,” Gates said.

When automotive freight can’t wait

Typical supply chain disruptions which trigger air charters are often around ground transportation and weather-related problems such as labor strikes, impassable roads due to floods or blizzards, when freight requires diversion from sea ports or roads to an airport for expediting by air. “Other times the production problems that slow manufacturing are related to quality control, upstream parts sourced overseas that got diverted, damaged, lost or stolen or something as simple as a power outage,” Gates said.

Even with air charters, freight can face unexpected problems, and that’s why it’s important to select an experienced charter operator like Amerijet. Unexpected delays could occur due to tie-ups in customs which can result in freight not being ready to load onto the waiting aircraft.

“The key to overcoming problems is having knowledgeable, local representatives presenting impeccable paperwork so that the administrative officials who approve the flow of goods through customs and bonded warehouses do not delay the shipments,” Gates said.

Worldwide, the Amerijet charter team and cargo agents work to developing collaborative relationships with customers, and leverage their expertise to deliver automotive cargo quickly with cost-efficient solutions. In addition to on-demand air charters, Amerijet offers scheduled maindeck B767 freighter service to 50 destinations in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America, and seamless connections to the rest of the world.

If you are considering an air cargo charter, and require pricing and availability information, please contact Amerijet at 954-375-0288, or email charterquotes@app-wpprod-prod-eastus2-001.azurewebsites.net.

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