Methodology

Last updated: 29 July 2026

This methodology explains how AirFreightPrice turns shipment details and verified supplier inputs into indicative planning figures. It also explains when we deliberately publish no figure.

Inputs

• Origin and destination, requested service, ready date, and routing constraints supplied by the user.
• Actual gross weight, piece count, and dimensions supplied by the user.
• Commodity and handling requirements, including dangerous goods, temperature control, or oversize status.
• Current written carrier, freight-forwarder, or partner terms when available for the same lane, service, validity, currency, and weight basis.
• Carrier tariff and rule material used to interpret chargeable weight, minimums, exclusions, and add-ons.

Derivation

1. Validate that the origin, destination, cargo details, service, and ready date are present.
2. Calculate a volume weight using the selected supplier’s current conversion and rounding rule.
3. Compare volume weight with actual gross weight and apply the supplier’s chargeable-weight rule.
4. Match only supplier input whose route, service, validity, currency, and weight basis fit the request.
5. Separate the base transport amount from fuel, security, handling, peak, special-cargo, and local charges, recording inclusions and exclusions.
6. Label the result indicative. If the input is incomplete, expired, ambiguous, or unsupported, withhold the figure and request a live quote.

We do not extrapolate an unsupported lane price, copy a third-party index value, or turn a market benchmark into a carrier quote. On 29 July 2026 the planned internal afp_routes rate table was not present in the specified production data container, so no counts or rates from it were used in this publication.

Update cadence and quality controls

This methodology and the public reference are reviewed monthly and whenever a material calculation rule changes. Shipment-specific carrier and forwarder inputs are checked for their stated validity when a quote is prepared. External methodology pages are checked monthly for material changes; carrier terms are checked for the shipment rather than assumed to follow a universal calendar.

Before publication, we require an attributable source, a verification date, a defined route and service, a currency and weight basis, and explicit surcharge treatment. A figure that fails those checks is omitted.

Limitations

Indicative figures cannot guarantee capacity, acceptance, routing, transit, customs outcome, or final price. Volatile capacity, cargo details, exchange rates, fuel and security adjustments, local handling, and regulatory requirements may change the amount. External indexes describe broader market conditions and may use different lanes, weight breaks, inclusions, and aggregation methods.

Corrections

Email [email protected] with the page URL, disputed statement, supporting source, and effective date. We review corrections against the named source and update the visible date when a material change is made.

See the Air Freight Rate Reference and Data Sources and Update Cadence.