Air Freight from Shanghai (PVG) to Chicago O'Hare (ORD)

Shanghai Pudong is China's largest international cargo gateway and Chicago O'Hare is the biggest air freight hub in the US Midwest. Between them they handle a very large share of all China–USA air cargo, with nonstop freighter service on weekdays.

Air freight rates: Shanghai to Chicago O'Hare

Per-kilogram reference levels recorded from the carriers' published tariffs, in CNY per kg against chargeable weight. The live market moves weekly and the applicable rate is confirmed at booking.

Rates exclude fuel, security and local handling surcharges. They are published here to show the structure of the market, not as a current offer.

Two Shanghai airports, one default answer

Shanghai has two international airports — Pudong (PVG) and Hongqiao (SHA). For US-bound air freight the default departure is always PVG, which has the freighter stands, customs supervision warehouses and the widebody capacity that Chicago traffic needs.

Sitting in the Yangtze River Delta with a huge foreign-trade manufacturing base behind it, Shanghai is the single most important Chinese air cargo airport. More than two hundred airlines maintain offices or representatives here, and carriers sell a wide range of routings, transit times and price points on the Chicago lane. Rates between individual airlines differ by several CNY per kilogram, and the cheapest option is not always the fastest one.

As a rough guide, Shanghai departures to O'Hare price a little below the equivalent Shenzhen and Guangzhou departures, and a little above Beijing and Xi'an. That spread is driven by where each airline's own allocation sits, not by distance.

CK China Cargo Airlines — the direct freighter

CK China Cargo Airlines operates a nonstop PVG–ORD freighter rotation six days a week, departing Shanghai Pudong at 07:45 Beijing time and arriving Chicago about 26 hours later on a Boeing 747 freighter with roughly 120 tonnes of payload and 946 CBM of volume — the equivalent of twelve 40-foot high-cube containers.

The Wednesday, Friday and Sunday rotation (CK233) adds an intermediate stop and therefore takes longer than the nonstop; the extra time depends on the offload and build-up efficiency at the transit station and is normally no more than one day. When a client asks how long CK will take from Shanghai to Chicago, we answer from the actual booked flight, not from the average.

Air China Cargo via New York JFK with US trucking

Air China Cargo also offers multiple daily departures from Pudong toward Chicago. One frequently used option flies the trans-Pacific sector into New York JFK and completes the journey on an airline truck, running Monday to Friday during normal US working hours.

Where the schedule shows a combi aircraft, the flight primarily carries passengers and only the residual hold space is sold as cargo, so capacity is limited. Cargo arriving on CA1069 late in the US week and missing the Thursday or Friday truck departs the following Monday, and the JFK–ORD road leg itself covers roughly 800 km in about twelve hours. CA1077, on the Boeing 777 freighter, lifts a considerably larger volume and accepts palletised freight — it is the better choice when the consignment is already built on aircraft pallets.