China Airport to US Door Air Freight Service

Airport-to-door is the service for US consignees who cannot clear freight at the American airport themselves: we fly the cargo from China and deliver it to the door, with import clearance and trucking built into one all-in price.

Who uses an airport-to-door service

This service exists for American consignees who do not have the machinery to clear freight themselves — individual consumers importing personally, companies that buy from China only occasionally, and businesses that suddenly need to move freight and have no broker on file. Rather than find a US forwarder at short notice, they ask a Chinese forwarder to deliver from the Chinese airport all the way to the door in the United States.

What the airport-to-door price includes

• The air freight from China to the US airport;
• The airline fuel surcharge;
• US airport local charges — airline documentation fee, pickup fee, warehouse fee and airport facility charges;
• US import customs clearance;
• The US agent's handling charge; and
• Inland trucking from the US airport to the delivery address.

Because the scope is wider than airport-to-airport, the total is higher — but the consignee receives one invoice and one point of contact instead of coordinating a broker, an airline and a trucking company separately.

What the Chinese shipper still has to do

The trade term is normally FOB China — FOB Shanghai, FOB Shenzhen, FOB Guangzhou and so on. Under FOB the Chinese supplier must:

• Deliver the cargo to the customs supervision warehouse at the named airport;
• Pay the booking agent's fee, the airline documentation fee, the airport miscellaneous charges and the China export declaration fee; and
• Send the consignee an electronic set of clearance documents — the packing list and the commercial invoice.

In most cases the US consignee has already agreed the import service with a US forwarder, and that US forwarder instructs its own Chinese branch or partner forwarder to make the booking — which is why the booking often comes to us from a US office rather than from the shipper directly.

A worked example: Chongqing to El Paso

A US buyer, which we will call YFY Jupiter Lucky, Inc., purchases moulds from a Chongqing supplier quoted FOB Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport. The buyer's logistics coordinator engages a China–USA air freight specialist — Goodhope Freight — to provide an airport-to-door service from Chongqing.

Two days before the moulds are finished, the supplier sends us an air freight booking instruction: 30 packages, crated, delivered under FOB Chongqing. We book the airline space; the factory delivers the crates to the warehouse address on the entry notice and supplies a complete export declaration pack. We uplift on HU Hainan Airlines Cargo from Chongqing Jiangbei to El Paso International (ELP), clear the freight at El Paso, and truck it to the buyer's nominated warehouse. Total airport-to-door transit: about five days.