Updated: February 27, 2023

 

When you’re deciding on your business’s freight mix, it’s important to get it right. If your shipments don’t move fast enough, you could end up with empty shelves and unhappy customers. However, if you pay more to move your shipments quickly, your freight costs can quickly take a bite out of your margins. Additionally, some items are simply better suited for particular freight modes, so you’ll need to choose accordingly.

 

If you’re deciding between air freight and ocean freight, we’ll show you how to strike the right balance between these two modes. First, we’ll walk you through the major question around these modes: how to balance speed and cost. Then, we’ll discuss which items are better for air freight vs. ocean freight so you can decide on your freight mix confidently—and budget for it appropriately.

 

We’ll start with a quick overview of how these modes stack up. Then, we’ll break it down for you.

 

Ocean vs. Air Freight at a Glance

chart of ocean vs air freight

Cost: The Balance Between Price and Speed

In short: Air freight is generally faster than ocean freight—and more expensive. Ocean freight is slower, but it’s often the cheaper option.

As you’re deciding between ocean freight and air freight, one of your major considerations will be deciding between speed and cost. The faster a shipment moves, the more expensive it will usually be. Air freight arrives faster than ocean freight. It’s also more expensive. In other words, when you choose air freight, you’re paying for speed.

 

However, there are still plenty of reasons you might choose ocean freight. If your margins are tight, air freight might not be a viable option. Additionally, if your cargo is large or heavy, air freight might be prohibitively expensive. Let’s take a look at how each mode is priced to give you a better sense of what to expect.

Pricing Your Air Freight Shipment

When you ship via air freight, your cost is calculated based on actual weight or volumetric weight, whichever is greater.

  • Actual weight: The gross weight of your shipment in pounds.
  • Volumetric / dimensional weight: An estimate based on calculated dimensions.

After your dimensional weight is calculated, it’s compared to the actual weight of your shipment. The larger of the two becomes what is called your “chargeable weight.” In addition to the actual air freight cost, air freight is subject to a flat $20 handling fee. In contrast to ocean freight and its many line-item charges, that flat-rate fee can save you some money.

Although it varies by carrier and route, two formulas many shippers use are:

  • Domestic Shipments: Cubic Feet x 8.9 = Dimensional Weight
  • International Shipments: Cubic Feet x 10.4 = Dimensional Weight
Pricing Your Ocean Freight Shipment

When it comes to figuring out the cost of your ocean freight shipment, there are a number of factors involved.

 

First, your cost will depend on whether you’re looking for an FCL solution (in which you use an entire container) or an LCL solution (in which you share a container with other shipments). For FCL shipments, your carrier will want to know the weight of the shipment (among other factors, including the contents of the container). For LCL solutions, both the weight and the dimensions are important. From there, your carrier or freight forwarder will calculate the cost of your ocean freight shipment. Read more about how ocean freight pricing works.

 

Nuances of pricing aside, ocean freight will almost always be the cheaper option for most shipments, but you’ll be sacrificing speed to save money.

A Couple of Additional Cost Considerations

As you mull over the difference in price between air freight and ocean freight, there are two other factors you’ll also want to take into account:

  • Packaging Costs: As we’ll discuss later, air cargo is subject to less handling. As a result, you won’t need to use as much packing material for your air freight shipments, which can reduce your expenses.
  • Additional Fees: As we mentioned above, air freight is subject to a $20 flat handling fee. When you move items via ocean freight, your invoice will include a number of fees, including things like drayage, terminal handling charges, port minimums, wharfage, fuel surcharges, and more. (Want to know more? We’ll break down your ocean freight invoice for you.) For small shipments, ocean freight fees can really start to add up. Make sure you take a look at both fee structures before making a final decision.

Speed: How Fast Do You Need to Get Your Freight to Arrive?

In short: Air freight is generally faster than ocean freight, for a couple of reasons.

FirFirst and foremost, airplanes are simply faster than boats. It takes a plane from California 5-6 hours to reach Honolulu. It can take a steamship 5-7 days. That’s a pretty sizeable difference. However, transit time isn’t the only factor impacting the transit time of your freight shipments.

Lead Time

Getting your ocean freight on a steamship involves significantly more lead time than air freight. If your items are shipping via ocean freight consolidation (also known as LCL freight), you’ll need to drop off your cargo a week in advance, and you might not receive it until a week after the ship is unloaded at the destination port.

 

With air freight, many shipments can be dropped off the day before and can be picked up the day after they arrive, saving you time on both ends.

 

If you want more flexibility for moving your shipments faster, air freight can be a good choice.

Sailing Schedules

Next, when it comes to ocean freight, you have to rely on each steamship line’s sailing schedule. For example, if you’re moving freight to Hawaii, ships may depart the West Coast to your destination as little as twice a week. If you miss one of the sail dates, you simply have to wait for the next one. For more remote destinations like Guam, you may end up waiting a week or more for the next available sailing date—if there’s even room on the vessel.

 

In contrast, you can schedule air freight on the first flight out—i.e., the next flight available to your destination with space for your cargo. With many more scheduled flights between destinations (thanks in large part to passenger jets that carry cargo on their lower decks), you won’t have to wait nearly as long, except during capacity crunches.

 

Additionally, air cargo can quickly be dispatched to any global location, even landlocked ones. There are only six embargoed countries (Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, and Venezuela) to which air freight is not available. If your destination isn’t near a sea port, air freight will be the fastest method to get it there.

Schedule Precision

Finally, when it comes to planning the exact date of your cargo’s arrival, air freight wins hands down. You can count on air freight to arrive without delays. As a result, you’ll know with confidence when that cargo will reach its destination.

 

The precision of air cargo schedules, combined with the quicker transit time, means you might be able to transition to a just-in-time inventory management strategy. In other words, you can keep less inventory in stock, reducing your warehousing costs and freeing up your cash flow. You can also reduce the risk of investing in excessive inventory that might become obsolete—another advantage to choosing air freight.

 

In contrast, ocean freight estimates are usually just that—a window in which your cargo is expected to arrive at the destination port. Once your ship leaves the origin port, the estimated transit time leaves a few days of wiggle room in case the ship has to adjust speed or course due to weather. In fact, you may not know the exact final delivery date for your ocean freight until the forwarder or delivery agent has your shipment in their possession. In other words, you’ll need to be a little more flexible when you choose ocean freight.

Now that we’ve talked about the trade-offs between speed and cost, let’s talk about which shipments are right for which types of freight.

 

Size: What Cargo Is Right for Ocean Freight vs. Air Freight?

In short: Large or oversized shipments are better for ocean freight.

Some freight concepts boil down to simple common sense. Oversized cargo is one of them. If you’ve ever seen a container ship up close, you’ve got an appreciation for its massive size. Now compare that to a large airplane, like an Airbus 380 or a Boeing 747.

Sure, those planes are large, but there’s no comparison in terms of cargo space. It’s like comparing a hot dog to a six-foot submarine sandwich!

As a result, it might not surprise you to discover that ocean freight is simply better suited for oversize cargo—and cheaper, too. To hammer this point home, let’s take a quick look at the cargo containers for both modes of transportation..

 

For air freight, these are called ULDs, unit load devices.
If your shipment doesn’t fit in a ULD, it’s considered oversized cargo, which is both more costly and more difficult to ship.

The most common ULDs we work with include the following:

  • LD-3 Container
    • Dimensions: 61.5” x 60.4” x 64”
    • Maximum Weight: 3,500 lbs.
  • LD-7 Container
    • Dimensions: 125” x 88” x 64”
    • Maximum Weight: 13,300 lbs.
  • M1 Pallet
    • Dimensions: 125” x 96” x 96”
    • Maximum Weight: 15,000 lbs.
For ocean freight, steamship lines use standard 20′ or 40′ containers.
40' Standard Container
  • 20′ Standard Container
    • Dimensions: 20′ x 8′ x 8’6″
    • Maximum Weight: 47,880 lbs.
  • 40′ Standard Container
    • Dimensions: 40′ x 8′ x 8’6″
    • Maximum Weight: 58,750 lbs.

For large or oversized cargo, flat rack, platform, and open top containers are available. However, since they’re not stackable like standard 20′ and 40′ containers, items shipped in these containers are priced differently. Now, to give you a sense of the space available for ocean freight vs. air freight, let’s compare a 40′ container to a ULD:

  • A 40′ container offers a shipper 2,390 cubic ft. of loading space.
  • An LD-7 ULD offers a shipper ~370 cubic ft. of loading space.

In other words, a standard 40′ ocean freight container offers you more than six times more space than one of the larger air cargo ULDs. The obvious conclusion? If you have a sizeable or oversized shipment, ocean freight will be your best choice.

Weight: Which Is Best for Heavy Shipments?

In short: Heavy shipments are better for ocean freight.

As we mentioned earlier, air freight is charged by either the actual weight of your shipment or the dim weight, whichever is greater.

As a result, if you’ve got a really heavy shipment, air freight can get expensive—fast. That same cargo shipped via ocean freight will usually be significantly cheaper.

In other words, when it comes to heavy shipments, ocean freight is almost always going to be your more cost-effective choice.

Handling: Air Freight or Ocean for High-Value Goods?

In short: Air freight means less handling for high-end goods.

If you’re shipping something like luxury handbags, it’s essential that your items arrive in perfect condition. Air freight subjects your items to a minimal amount of handling, due in large part to the fact that air freight shipments are simply touched by fewer parties.

In contrast, ocean freight containers get loaded on and off chassis for over-the-road drayage, then they’re loaded on and off the vessel by crane, placed back on a chassis and moved to the next destination, etc. And that’s not to mention the days that ocean freight cargo spends at sea, subject to wind, waves, and the rocking of the boat. If your ocean freight cargo isn’t packed properly, it can arrive with some bumps and bruises.

 

Finally, there’s a higher level of safety and security controls around air cargo, which is overseen by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). These controls offer the added advantage of offering greater protection against theft and damage to air freight shipments.

 

At the end of the day, when it comes to items that are expensive or delicate, air freight is the right choice.

Hazardous Materials: What Can Ship via Air or Ocean?

In short: Ocean freight is available for more classes of hazardous material than air freight.

Ocean freight is available for more classes of hazardous material than air freight. Finally, you might not have much of a choice as to whether your items ship via ocean freight or air freight.

 

Airline regulations are more restrictive. Certain items can’t ship via air freight, no matter what. For example, flammable materials like paint and large volumes of perfume are a no-go for air freight. Lithium batteries can ship via air, but not on planes that also carry passengers, limiting available routes.

 

When it comes to ocean freight, many carriers are willing to transport hazardous materials—with restrictions. Materials must be disclosed, properly stored, and carefully labeled so the steamship line can manage them appropriately during the journey.

Whether you’re shipping via air or ocean freight, the key is disclosure. Let your carrier or forwarder know up front exactly what you’re transporting. That way, the proper precautions can be taken to avoid problems—or large fines.

 

Which Mode Is Right for You?

Now that you know the ins and outs of the costs, advantages, and logistics of air and ocean freight, you’re ready to choose the right freight mode for your business. Ultimately, the right answer likely isn’t one or the other, but a combination of both. By leveraging multiple modes of transportation, you’ll be able to take advantage of the areas in which each mode shines and establish the perfect mix for your operation.

 

Need some help choosing air freight vs. ocean freight for your next shipment? Talk to one of our experts. They’ll walk you through the options and help you choose the mode that best meets your business goals.

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