02-04 Air Freight

It was 2009 and we had completed a cruise from Sydney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand. And in the early morning from our Auckland hotel near the airport we watched one 747 after another head off to foreign market loaded up with vacuum-packed fresh lamb.
In previous years when lamb was frozen the nation employed traditional shipping to reach foreign markets.
During the years we lived in the country and an hour from Toronto, we enjoyed a weekly shipment of New Zealand lamb available in all the grocery stores. It was airfreight and refrigerated trucking that brought us lamb competitive with local Ontario lamb.
The use of air freight is obvious when shipping is time sensitive. Not just fresh vegetables, fish and seafood; but things like pharmaceuticals and fashion goods.
Another air freight story is linked to a winter holiday in Clearwater, Florida. And you would think that the area would be specializing in fresh fish caught in Tampa Bay.
But, to our surprise, all the restaurants served fish from Indonesia. Having been in Indonesia I knew it was a monster $4 billion export business.
Fresh fish exported by air freight to Tampa and delivered the same day to all the restaurants within a 100 miles. Hard to believe the Indonesia restaurant specials were all cheaper than fish caught in the waters outside our restaurant window.
Globalism is scary. Again it is about technology rather than politics.
The truly monster users of air freight are the military forces of the world. It is always about moving troops and equipment quickly.
The largest fleet of air transport airplanes is owned by the United States. And in a crisis fleets of aircraft used for shipping goods can be converted for military service.