The Air Transport Mode
 

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The Air Transport Mode

For someone who wants to send a shipment door-to-door and over a medium to long distance fast, the air transport mode will best fit this purpose.

With air transport, cargo can be transported in different types of aircraft:
Passenger aircraft
in the cargo area below the passengers, the so-called "belly"
look here for an example: the Airbus A320 (ANA)
look here for an example: the Boeing 737 NG (Boeing)
look here for another example: the Airbus A380 (Emirates on Airliners.net)
look here for another example: cross-section of the Airbus A330 fuselage (Wapedia)
in the passenger cabin as hand-carry by a so-called "on-board courier" (OBC) flying as passenger, sometimes also called "hand-carry services"
the OBC is mostly an employee working for a forwarder or courier service (see below) and can also take care of the total door-to-door transport, all eventual customs formalities for export or import, as well as the hand-over at destination
this type of service is mainly used for very urgent or valuable ********s and small goods ; as with all cargo services, also here the entry requirements and customs regulations of the country of import, as well as the regulations for restricted articles on board of the aircraft must be known and adhered to
Cargo aircraft, or: Freighters
on the main-deck or in the belly ; by means of nose-loading, where the whole nose is opened, or side loading, through a large cargo door
look here for an example: the Antonov AN-124 Ruslan
look here for another example: the Boeing 767-300F (Boeing)
look here for another example: the Boeing 747-400ERF (Air France)
look here for another example: the Airbus A330-200F (Airbus)
look here for another example: the Fokker F27 (Air Charter service)
look here for the configuration of the freighters of UPS
if you are interested in the price of a freighter, take for example a look here at Boeing's list prices.
Combi aircraft
on the main-deck behind the passengers’ area with side loading through a large cargo door, and in the belly
look here for an example: the Boeing 747-400M Combi (Boeing), and also here from KLM
look here for another example: the Boeing 737-400 Combi (Alaska Airlines)

As you can see in the examples above, the dimensions of the aircraft can vary, which of course also influences the amount of passengers and/or cargo that can be taken. The amount and weight of cargo that can be carried depends a.o. on the fuselage dimensions (esp. the diameter) of the aircraft. For the bigger aircraft or airliners a difference is made between narrow body and wide body aircraft.