Export formalities in the country of departure, which include the export declaration and, for some commodities, export control or licensing. Aviation security screening, which is not a customs process at all but decides whether the shipment is allowed onto the aircraft and when. And import clearance at destination, which is the consignee's broker filing an entry against a commercial invoice, a harmonised code, an origin and a value.
Air freight · customs and Incoterms
Customs and Incoterms for air cargo
Three regimes that get called customs, the four Incoterms rules that do not belong on an air shipment, and the paperwork that decides whether clearance takes an hour or a week.
- Incoterms 2020 rules
- 11
- Valid for air
- 7
- Sea and waterway only
- FAS, FOB, CFR, CIF
- Importer of record
- The consignee
What this desk is. OnBoard Courier places on board couriers: a vetted person carries the consignment in the cabin on a scheduled passenger flight and hands it over against a signature. The desk does not operate air freight, does not hold an airline contract and is not a forwarder. Air freight enquiries sent through this site are passed to a vetted forwarding partner, and the pages here are written so that you can tell which of the two you actually need.
The three separate things people call customs
An air movement crosses three regimes that are routinely lumped together and that fail in different ways.
Almost every delay attributed to customs starts earlier than customs: a commercial invoice that does not describe the goods, a code chosen by guesswork, an origin nobody checked, or a consignee who is not registered to import what has been sent to them.
Incoterms, and the ones that do not belong on an air waybill
Incoterms 2020 has eleven rules. Seven of them work for any mode of transport, which means they work for air: EXW, FCA, CPT, CIP, DAP, DPU and DDP. Four are for sea and inland waterway transport only: FAS, FOB, CFR and CIF.
FOB on an air shipment is the most common error in the set. It is not merely untidy. FOB allocates risk at a moment defined by loading on board a vessel, and when there is no vessel the parties have agreed a transfer point that does not exist. When something is damaged, the argument about who owned the risk has no answer in the term they chose.
The air term that does the job people usually mean by FOB is FCA. Under FCA the seller delivers, cleared for export, at a named place, and risk passes there. If the named place is the seller's premises the seller loads; if it is a terminal, the seller delivers ready for unloading.
One 2020 change matters for air. CIP now requires insurance at Institute Cargo Clauses (A), the broad cover, where CIF stayed at Clauses (C). Since CIF cannot lawfully be used on an air shipment, the air rule with insurance in it is CIP and it carries the higher standard.
What the paperwork has to say
The commercial invoice
A specific description of the goods, the harmonised code, the country of origin, the quantity, the unit and total value, the currency, the Incoterm with a named place, and the parties. "Spare parts, value 1 USD" is not a description and not a value, and it converts a one hour clearance into a multi day one.
The air waybill
Consistent with the invoice in every respect that both documents carry. Weight, pieces, description, consignee and terms. A mismatch between them is the first thing an examining officer finds. See the air waybill page.
Anything the commodity triggers
A dangerous goods declaration, a temperature requirement, a certificate of origin where a preference is claimed, a licence for a controlled or dual use item, a health or veterinary certificate. Each has its own lead time and none of them can be produced retrospectively.
The consignee, named properly
A legal entity that is registered to import, with an address that can receive, a tax identifier where the country requires one, and a broker who has been told the shipment is coming. This single step removes more delay than any other.
Where the two models differ
In air freight the entry is filed by the consignee's broker against documents that were prepared before departure, and the shipment waits in a shed until it clears. The waiting is normal and it is where the door to door time goes.
On a hand carry the courier declares in person on arrival, in the red channel, carrying the documents. That is faster on most lanes and it is a genuinely different procedure rather than a shortcut through the same one. It does not change who imports: the consignee is still the importer of record and their broker still files where a formal entry is required. This desk never acts as importer of record and never advances duty.
What it does change is that a question at the counter is answered by a person standing there rather than by an email into a shed.
Questions people actually ask
01Which Incoterms are legal on an air shipment?
EXW, FCA, CPT, CIP, DAP, DPU and DDP work for any mode including air. FAS, FOB, CFR and CIF are for sea and inland waterway transport only. FOB on an air waybill is one of the most common errors in international trade, and it produces genuine arguments about who bears risk when nothing was ever loaded over a ship's rail.
02Who is the importer of record?
The consignee, in the ordinary case, and their broker files the entry. A courier desk is never the importer of record and never advances duty. If the shipment needs somebody else to import it, that has to be arranged with a party who can lawfully do it, before the goods travel.
03What changed between CIF and CIP under Incoterms 2020?
The insurance level. Under Incoterms 2020, CIP requires cover at Institute Cargo Clauses (A) level, which is the broad cover, while CIF remains at Clauses (C), which is much narrower. Since CIF is a sea term, the air relevant rule is CIP, and it now carries the higher requirement.
04Does DDP make it simple?
It makes it simple for the buyer and complicated for the seller. Under DDP the seller clears import and pays duty and taxes in the buyer's country, which requires the seller to be able to act as importer there. In many countries a non resident cannot, or can only with a registration and a fiscal representative. DDP agreed casually in a purchase order is a frequent source of stranded shipments.
05What is a regulated agent and a known consignor?
Security terms rather than customs terms. Cargo entering the aviation system has to be secure. In the European regime, a known consignor applies controls at its own premises so that its cargo can be accepted as secure; everything else is screened by a regulated agent before it flies. It affects timing more than cost: unscreened cargo arriving late has to queue for screening.
Where this came from
- Scheduled network, airlines and frequencies: AeroDataBox scheduled route statistics as held by this site, retrieved 2026-09-07. It is a snapshot rather than a live timetable, it includes some all cargo operators but is not a complete freighter schedule, and a carrier that is not listed may still fly the pair.
- Distances: Great circle, computed from published airport coordinates. They are shorter than a flown track and are not routing distances.
- Block times: Modelled, not measured: great circle distance times a track factor of 1.06, divided by a cruise speed of 720, 830 or 880 km/h by distance band, plus thirty minutes of taxi across the two ends. This is the same model the route calculator on this site uses. A real timetable will differ.
- Industrial sites: Public company information, checked 2026-09-07. Nothing here states or implies that any company named is a customer of OnBoard Courier or of any operator.
- Air cargo rules and definitions: The ICAO Technical Instructions and the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations for dangerous goods, IATA Resolution 600a for the air waybill, the Montreal Convention 1999 for carrier liability, and Incoterms 2020. Where this site holds no figure of its own it says so rather than inventing one.
Who publishes this. OnBoard Courier is a hand carry placement desk in Dubai. It does not fly air freight. These pages exist because the desk is asked to rescue air freight that has run out of time often enough to have learned where the line between the two sits, and because a comparison written by somebody who sells only one of the two options is not a comparison. Found an error? Tell us and we will correct it.
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