Shipping By Air: Parties In The Market
 

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From a potential shipper’s or customer’s viewpoint, the international (door-to-door) air cargo market can be divided in four major supplier categories according to their core business:
Postal companies using Airmail
Envelopes and parcels up to 30 kg
Air transport generally outsourced to airlines
Examples: EMS Wordwide Express Mail Service, Deutsche Post, La Poste, Singapore Post, Swiss Post, TNT Mail, USPS, etc.
International Courier companies or: Couriers
Envelopes and parcels up to 75 kg
Air transport generally outsourced to airlines
Examples: City-Link, DPD, DPEX Worldwide, HKDC Royale Asia, Kangaroo Worldwide Express, KDZ Express, OCS - Overseas Courier Services, Quick International Courier, Sky Net Worldwide Express, Speedlink International, Time:Matters, World Courier, UNEX - Universal Express, etc.
International Express companies or: Integrators
Envelopes and parcels up to 75 kg
Generally operate their own aircraft, some destinations outsourced to airlines, aircraft operators or aircharter companies
Examples: DHL Express, FedEx, TNT Express, UPS, etc.
(Air Cargo) Forwarders
Parcels and consolidations > 75 kg or up to anything that fits in an aircraft
Air transport generally outsourced to airlines and sometimes aircraft operators or aircharter companies
Examples: Agility, CEVA Logistics, C.H. Robinson, Damco, DB Schenker, DHL Global Forwarding, DSV, Expeditors, Geodis, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, Kerry Logistics, KWE - Kintetsu World Express, Kuehne + Nagel, Nippon Express, Panalpina, Pantos Logistics, Rhenus Logistics, SDV, Sinotrans, UTi Worldwide, UPS SCS, etc.


The real air transport (or: airport-to-airport) part is actually outsourced by these companies to an air operator or airline (except in case of the Integrators, that operate an in-house aircraft fleet for the main part of their air transport needs and outsource only partially).

The combined airlines have the biggest share of this world wide air transport market for cargo.

So the above mentioned Postal companies, Couriers, Integrators and Forwarders, are the cargo customers of the airlines ; and thus the airlines are their suppliers or partners.

The air cargo forwarders are the ‘traditional’ and still most important customers for the airlines. According to FIATA, forwarders contract, book and process over 80 per cent of international air cargo consignments. They compile the complete and (where necessary) customized door-to-door (D2D) air cargo supply chains for their customers, which are often called end-customers by the airlines. The airlines deliver the airport-to-airport (A2A) transport in this chain.