Cargo Charter: Moving (Stuff) Right Along

When discussing charter aviation, people are typically the main focus. Whether they want to see a significant other play in the Super Bowl, jaunt to the Caribbean to escape from the snow, or spend some quality time as a family, living passengers serve as the face of private jet travel.

However, people aren’t the only entities moving by air. According to the International Air Transport Association, more than $8 trillion in goods are transported by air each year, making up about one-third of all world trade. While ships and trucks definitely play a role in getting cargo from origin to destination, delivery by air makes a just-in-time global economy possible.

Air Freight. Photo Credit: Ted Horowitz Photography, The Image Bank / Getty Images

“It’s a fundamental part of the jigsaw puzzle that we all take for granted, but it’s very much beneath the radar of how the world works,” says Jamie Peters, director of cargo for charter broker Hunt & Palmer. “It’s an underworld.”

Charter aviation is no exception. In 2024, the charter aviation market for cargo was estimated to total about $10 billion worldwide, with growth expected to continue. While passenger airlines often move cargo and passengers at the same time (albeit in different parts of the aircraft), cargo charter and passenger charter are more individualized. If you’d like to learn more about how charter jets get things, not just people, where they need to go, read on.

Silky Load

Cargo aviation dates back to 1910, when a Wright Model B airplane moved 200 pounds of silk from Dayton, Ohio to Columbus on November 7. The plane flew 65 miles in 57 minutes, setting what was then a world record for speed. Mail made its own maiden flight less than six months later in February 1911, when 6,500 letters were flow eight miles from Allahabad to Naini in India.

While railroads and ships were the primary methods for transporting anything over long distances at the time, the relative speed of air travel helped it gain ground rapidly in the cargo transportation market in the 1920s. However, all-cargo airlines themselves only came into being after World War II. The introduction of wide-body aircraft in 1968 with Boeing’s 747 – the first plane able to move full pallets in its cargo hold – helped boost the industry further.

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In the 1990s, the growth of overnight delivery services such as FedEx and DHL helped supercharge the demand for air cargo transport for items that absolutely, positively had to be there overnight (or at least more rapidly than ground or sea transport could carry them). The rise in just-in-time inventory and lean manufacturing practices in that decade also increased the need for air cargo services. While scheduled routes were able to play a role in making both of these trends possible, cargo charter was also needed to accommodate logistics requirements that grew more and more specific and time sensitive.

“There are freighter aircraft operated by passenger airlines, and there are pure cargo airlines out there. However, when that becomes not viable, perhaps because the cargo is too big or the destination is too remote, the alternative is to deploy a dedicated cargo aircraft,” Peters explains. “We are the premium solution to anything that needs to move.”

COVID Years

For much of the air transport industry, travel restrictions related to concerns about the COVID-19 virus slowed business down dramatically in the spring of 2020 – including private jet travel through charter services. Things were somewhat different in the cargo charter sector.

“Cargo and logistics is a 24-7 business – it never stops for anything,” Peters says. “During COVID, governments around the world had huge demands to move PPE [personal protection] equipment. The scale of the business went absolutely off the charts in a way that none of us in the cargo charter industry had experienced before.”

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When private jet travel and eventually commercial air travel began to recover, another global challenge continued to push demand for cargo charter – supply chain management. Declines in manufacturing output from factory closures and labor shortages driven by lockdowns disrupted production, with the latter also slowing down movement through major ports. Even as factories and ports recovered, political tensions in areas such as the Middle East and Russia continued to make supply chains less reliable than they had been before.

“Up until the end of 2023, there was a high demand for cargo aircraft capabilities for keeping the shelves stocked with general commodities. Warehouse inventories were very low,” Peters recalls. “At the start of 2024, the market seemed to have dropped out a bit…then, suddenly, there was a boom in online purchasing with e-commerce business.”

While e-commerce has created demand for cargo aviation since its birth in the 1980s, the growth of social media-based e-commerce with platforms such as TikTok, combined with e-commerce juggernauts such as Amazon.com and Temu, have especially ensured that cargo aviation – including cargo charter – continues to thrive half a decade after COVID first struck.

“These companies are offering door-to-door service for vast quantities of cargo that regularly scheduled airlines cannot fully accommodate,” Peters says. “There is still very large demand for regular capacity, primarily from Asia and particularly in China, and expansion into emerging markets in the Middle East and Africa is only increasing demand.”

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Ballots and Flowers and Bombs, Oh My

Speed and timing aren’t the only elements pushing the need for cargo charter. Certain types of goods and materials are difficult to ship through scheduled channels due to factors such as volume, composition or political sensitivity. Currency and election material that must be transported, for example, are often most securely moved to where they need to be through cargo charter rather than scheduled airline service given the need for absolute security. Military equipment and “dangerous” goods such as explosives frequently require the tailored timing and logistical expertise that fits best with cargo charter. While cats and dogs may be able to tag along with owners on private passenger jets, prize cattle and race horses require the size and specialization that cargo charter can provide.

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Oil and gas equipment especially drives demand for cargo charter given both its size and intricacy and its occasional urgent need. While chartering a cargo aircraft to move a giant pump isn’t cheap, the money lost by an oil rig being out of service for days typically dwarfs that cost.

In addition, the sheer level of demand at certain times for certain items can make cargo charter a necessity. Those endless roses that blanket supermarkets for Valentine’s Day, traveling from producers in Latin America and Africa to consumers in North America and Europe in climate-controlled aircraft, provide one example. Retailers rely on sales from Thanksgiving to Christmas to make their targets, and they need a lot of consumer goods in a tight timeframe to make that happen. When new iPhone or Samsung Galaxy models hits the market, lots of buyers want them immediately.

“Many of our clients are freight forwarders who are engaged in day-to-day logistics. When those supply chains fail them, they come looking for additional capacity,” Peters explains.

Money vs Time

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As you may have guessed, cargo charter isn’t exactly inexpensive. “The cost to hire a cargo plane can vary depending on factors such as the type of aircraft, the nature of the goods and the route,” explains private jet broker Global Charter on its Website. “For a short-haul flight on a smaller cargo aircraft, prices start from around $15,000. For a long-haul flight on a larger freight aircraft like the Boeing 747-8F, prices can exceed $500,000.”

In some circumstances, though, charter may be the only feasible way to move a type of cargo where it needs to be. Certain locations in the developing world are not able to offer enough capacity through regular routes to meet demand. Humanitarian goods cannot wait for conflicts to die down in areas such as Ukraine or Gaza. And time can almost literally be money even when scheduled routes may exist.

“Sometimes production of objects is delayed and contracts have late delivery charges that outweigh the cost of a charter,” Peters says. “One kilo can justify a charter if it’s urgently needed.”

Cargo charter is simpler than passenger charter in one respect – the former usually involves one-way trips, while the latter often requires arrangements for a return trip. However, while passengers can walk off of a plane, cargo must be moved – and airports with experience in offloading complicated cargo may be required. Unlike with passenger charter, the size of the jet involved is not the main factor in determining optimum logistics, especially given that cargo can’t just hop an Uber to or from an airport.

“Rockford might be an alternative to Chicago,” Peters says, referring to the commercial airport in Rockford, Illinois. “But, if the aircraft is already in Chicago, it might be cheaper to take the cargo to the aircraft than the aircraft to the cargo.”

All That Glitters May Need Cargo Charter

Several years ago, owners of a gold mine near the Andes mountains in Chile were hoping to sell to another investor. In order to make the sale, the mine needed a large pipe installed. Typically, a pipe this size would be transported by ground; however, the amount of snow in the mountains ruled that out as an option. Without the pipe, the mine sale was at risk.

Peters helped arrange for a large specialty aircraft to journey from Europe to Chile, with the plane traveling 35 hours across the ocean solely to haul the pipe for 30 minutes over the mountains. The total price tag for the booking hit seven figures – but the mine was sold successfully.

“Cargo just continues to need to be moved, and it will take a lot to stop that need,” Peters muses. “Cycles come and go, but there are always unforeseen circumstances that arise that drive needs for cargo charter services.”