There are four categories of long-distance freight:

Bulk sea freight: such as petroleum and derived products, grain or minerals
Containerised sea freight: used for many consumer and industrial products
General airfreight: carried on pallets by dedicated freighters or in the under-floor space of passenger aircraft
Express airfreight: most often carried as small packages in containers on dedicated freighters

The selection of the mode of transport is essentially governed by volume, cost, value, speed, security, geography and environmental impact. Simply put, transportation costs should not add an excessive burden to the product cost. In addition the higher the value of the goods, the greater the financial penalty for lengthening the time-to-market. But there is also a significant grey area, where, for reasons independent of the intrinsic value of the goods, air shipment becomes more desirable. In particular, the risk of losing a customer or of stopping large-scale
production for lack of a spare part, often justify the cost of air transport. In these instances, time is quite literally money.
Taking the US as an example, airfreight represents less than 1% of total exports, which highlights that the use of bulk sea freight and even containerised sea freight, far exceed the use of aircraft to move cargo.

Over the North Pacific, airfreight offers a significant time saving of almost two weeks. The advantage of air over sea is even greater on the Asia-Europe flows. It takes 1.5 days for express airfreight, compared to 25 days for ocean traffic between Chinese and European seaports, giving air transport a three-week advantage.

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Long distances and mountainous areas, combined with a lack of road and rail infrastructure also drive freight towards aircraft. Some fish exports from Africa would just not be possible as there is often no reliable refrigerated ground transportation between production sites and suitable seaports. Air transport, despite its higher unit cost, can be a cheaper alternative to investing in large ground-based infrastructure projects, like new rail or road links.
Advances in processes, technology and time-definite sea freight services raise the question of transferring shipments from one transportation mode to another. It is believed that consumer good shipments could ultimately shift between modes as small improvements in sea journey times and better port security offer an opportunity for more sea transportation for large and regular shipments.

However, most sectors are unlikely to move from air to sea. The development of e-commerce, which depends on a quick-distribution model, also increases the reliance on airfreight, and high value goods will continue to be drawn to air transportation. Capital goods, but also lower value goods from the primary and intermediate sectors, travel by air out of occasional necessity, such as unexpected delays, which will always occur. Therefore, this small percentage from what is a very large sector, is likely to remain. Food trade does not appear to be too sensitive to shifts in the mode of transport, as quality and time to market are paramount. While there is some opportunity to transfer business either way between air and containerised sea freight, airfreight is expected to retain a 3% share of the total US freight exchanged, in terms of tonnage.

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The need for (F)air trade

The ability to move goods quickly from the area in which they are produced to a more lucrative market has always been a crucial factor in commerce. Indeed the tea clippers of the 19th century, the pinnacle of transportation technology at that time, were renowned for "clipping" journey times between Europe and Asia or across the Atlantic. They brought goods from such places as the West Indies, India and China to markets in the West, in turn, bringing jobs and economic wealth to those regions. Today, the pinnacle of transport technology is the aircraft, which can move goods between anywhere in the world in a fraction of the time of other modes of transport. This has enabled industries to develop and flourish in parts of the world where access to these same lucrative markets is an important element of their economic activity.

In Kenya, the production of flowers, fruit and vegetables are among the country�s most important exports and form part of an agricultural sector that is responsible for more than 25% of the country�s GDP. In fact, Kenya is the world�s third largest and Africa�s largest exporter of cut flowers, with 70,000 jobs directly associated with their production. Yet, this is an industry that would be impossible to sustain without the timely delivery to market that airfreight can provide, with up to 80% delivered by air today.

Beyond the economic and social benefits that such industries can have for countries and their populations, in certain cases it would also appear to make environmental sense. A study carried out by Cranfield University early in 2007, concluded that roses grown in Kenya and then flown to European markets, produced up to 83% less CO2 emissions than similar flowers grown in heated greenhouses and then transported within Europe.

In general, the airfreight of fruit and vegetables from the whole of Africa accounts for less than one tenth of one percent of the UK�s greenhouse gas emissions. It should also be remembered that the people of Kenya, many of whom work in and rely on these industries, as well as other wealth-creating sectors like tourism, are responsible for fifty times less CO2 per person than an individual from a typical European country.

One thing is clear, the environmental impact of aircraft must be considered in the overall context of global economic equality and the entire production lifecycle of the goods involved, rather than in the over-simplified context of emissions created by individual delivery flights.






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