What the desk actually needs from Rio de Janeiro is proximity to a gate. An assignment appears when something has to leave Rio de Janeiro by a deadline no freight product will promise. The question is then very simple: who is close enough to SDU to check in for the next departure. From Rio de Janeiro that is 6 minutes of driving, which is why the city is on the list at all.
Open · Brazil desk · Rio de Janeiro
On Board Courier, Rio de Janeiro
Freelance hand carry work for couriers who live in Rio de Janeiro. SDU is 6 minutes away by road, the desk books and pays the seat, and the fee is agreed in writing before you accept.
OnBoard Courier is a United Arab Emirates company, contracted by ICSL FZE and run from Dubai. A city named on this site is a place we cover and route through, not a separate company in that city. Assignments are contracted under UAE law, and the terms are published in full under legal and policies.
Based inRio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro
Nearest gateSDU · Rio de Janeiro
Drive to the aircraft4 km · 6 minutes
Nonstop from SDU5 airports
EngagementFreelance · per assignment
Fee per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600
Apply for this position
Applying is free. Freelance · self-employed ·
posted 7 September 2026 · open until 7 March 2027
What the work pays
The fee for an assignment is agreed with you in writing before you accept it. These are the figures the site publishes, and what the desk covers on top of them.
Top published feeAED 2,000The highest fee the site shows for a single assignment: sealed medical samples in a cooled case, Dubai to Singapore.
Published band, per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600A document pouch to London is AED 1,200, an aircraft part to Frankfurt AED 1,500, an escorted watch on the Berlin lane AED 1,800.
What the flight costs youAED 0The desk books and pays the ticket, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never fronts the fare.
The one payment you makeAED 199, returnedThe Academy, paid once. It comes back in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. Applying itself is free.
Fees vary with the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate, so the desk quotes each assignment individually rather than pretending one number fits every trip. You are self-employed and there is no minimum: accept or decline whatever you like, and declining costs you nothing. Earnings are paid per delivery by bank transfer, they appear in your courier portal, and you can request a payout once the balance reaches AED 200. Apply and see the flight board.
You fly as a passengerOne consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature. No warehouse, no van, no round.
The desk books and pays the ticketFlight, transfers and, where the routing needs it, a hotel are booked before you leave for the airport.
Paid per assignmentA fee agreed in writing before you accept, paid to your bank account after the signature. Applying is free.
How to start, in four steps
1
Apply once
One application covers every country desk. Tell us which passports you hold and where you can travel.
2
Verification and the Academy
Identity and background check, then a short course on customs, handovers and chain of custody.
3
Your first offer
The desk sends the routing, the dates and the fee in writing. You accept or decline, nothing is automatic.
4
Fly, hand over, get paid
Collect, board, clear customs in person, hand over against signature, and the fee is paid to your account.
The assignment
Most assignments out of SDU are confirmed hours, not days, in advance. You are given the flight, the consignee and the customs position in writing, you drive to SDU, and the ticket is already paid and issued in your name. Where the routing runs through the Emirates it goes by way of GRU, on one ticket, with the connection booked long enough to be real. The handover is in person, and the fee reaches your account after it.
Getting to the aircraft from Rio de Janeiro
From the middle of Rio de Janeiro to the departure hall at SDU is 4 km of road, 6 minutes in normal conditions. Every timing the desk gives a courier in Rio de Janeiro starts from that number.
The ground leg from Rio de Janeiro barely counts as one. 6 minutes to SDU means the desk can ring you and still make a departure the same evening. Counting the second gate matters in Rio de Janeiro. GIG is 20 minutes from Rio de Janeiro with 52 nonstop destinations, so a cancellation at SDU is an inconvenience rather than the end of the assignment.
| IATA | Airport | By road | Driving time | Nonstop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SDU | Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont | 4 km | 6 minutes | 5 |
| GIG | Rio de Janeiro RIOgaleão-Tom Jobim | 18 km | 20 minutes | 52 |
Rio de Janeiro is a city of 6.7 million people in Rio de Janeiro, and the clock there runs 7 hours behind the Emirates all year. Road distances are measured driving routes rather than straight lines, and nonstop counts come from the scheduled route data this site publishes.
What SDU reaches without a change
The board at SDU carries 5 nonstop destinations flown by 3 carriers. The table below is the busiest end of the SDU board, measured in average daily flights rather than in marketing.
| IATA | City | Airport | Frequency | Operators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CGH | São Paulo | São Paulo Congonhas | about 30 departures a day | 2 operators: Azul, GOL |
| BSB | Brasília | Brasília Presidente Juscelino Kubistschek | about 15 departures a day | 2 operators: GOL, LATAM |
| VCP | Campinas | Campinas Viracopos | about 9 departures a day | 1 operator: Azul |
| CNF | Belo Horizonte | Belo Horizonte Tancredo Neves | about 7 departures a day | 1 operator: Azul |
| GRU | São Paulo | São Paulo Guarulhos - Governador André Franco Montoro | about 3 departures a day | 1 operator: LATAM |
Counting every airport a courier in Rio de Janeiro can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 53 airports. Frequencies are average daily flights and change with the season, so the desk checks the live schedule before it offers you anything.
What moves out of Rio de Janeiro
There is no published industrial map for the SDU area on this site, and a page that made one up would be worthless. The traffic out of Rio de Janeiro is the normal kind: documents that have to be witnessed, parts that stopped something, and samples with a clock on them.
Why a courier in Rio de Janeiro is useful to the desk
A courier based in Rio de Janeiro is useful to a Dubai desk for a reason that has nothing to do with Rio de Janeiro being famous. It is that the desk can position a person at SDU inside 6 minutes of a phone call, and SDU has somewhere to send them.
Honesty about the routing out of SDU matters more than a good headline. From Rio de Janeiro the best single change is São Paulo (GRU), and GRU to DXB is flown by Emirates, about one departure a day. Counting a normal connection that is around 17h 20m gate to gate, so an assignment between Rio de Janeiro and the Emirates is planned as a connecting itinerary and the desk books the whole thing on one ticket.
The nearest other cities on the Brazil list
Show the 12 closest, and how far each is from Rio de Janeiro
Nova Iguaçu32 km away, GIG in 32 minutesSão José dos Campos278 km away, GRU in 1 hour 2 minutesSao Paulo360 km away, CGH in 15 minutesCampinas397 km away, CGH in 1 hour 22 minutesSorocaba442 km away, CGH in 1 hour 20 minutesCuritiba678 km away, CWB in 26 minutesJoinville686 km away, CWB in 1 hour 46 minutesBrasilia936 km away, BSB in 18 minutesPorto Alegre1126 km away, POA in 18 minutesSalvador1210 km away, SSA in 27 minutesRecife1874 km away, REC in 14 minutesJoão Pessoa1969 km away, REC in 1 hour 55 minutes
All 16 Brazil cities are listed on the Brazil courier desk, which stays the general application for the country.
The engagement, and who we are looking for
The engagement
- Type: freelance, self-employed. You are an independent courier accepting individual assignments, not an employee, and you decide which ones you take.
- Where it runs: assignments are flown out of SDU and the other airports listed above, between Brazil and wherever the consignment is going, with the return leg agreed per mission.
- Hours: variable. An assignment is a single trip, not a shift or a roster.
- How you are paid: a fee per completed assignment, agreed in writing before you accept it. The fees published on this site run from AED 1,200 for a document pouch to AED 2,000 for a cooled medical consignment, and the figure for your assignment reflects the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate.
- What the desk pays: the flight, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never pays for the ticket and never fronts the fare.
- Applying is free. No payment is required to apply, to be screened or to be placed on the courier list. The Academy costs AED 199, paid once, and is returned in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. It is the only payment a courier ever makes to us.
What we look for
- A passport with comfortable remaining validity and free pages, and the right to enter the country on the routing. The desk checks the visa position for your specific passport before any assignment is offered.
- A clean background check and a willingness to be verified. Couriers carry other people’s property.
- Availability at short notice, and a realistic view of the 6 minutes drive to SDU. Most assignments are confirmed hours, not days, before departure.
- Presentable, calm and articulate at a customs counter. The consignment is only as smooth as the person carrying it.
- A working phone, reachable on the number you gave us, for the whole assignment.
What we provide
- The ticket. Always. A courier never pays for the flight and never fronts the fare.
- The paperwork, prepared before you reach SDU, and a named contact at the desk on both ends.
- A briefing on the consignment, the consignee and what the customs position at the far end looks like.
- A fee per completed assignment, agreed with you in advance and paid by bank transfer after the handover.
Questions about the Rio de Janeiro list
01How far is Rio de Janeiro from SDU?
4 km, about 6 minutes by car from Rio de Janeiro. The desk works backwards from the bag drop at SDU, so the time it asks you to leave will look conservative and is meant to.
02What can I reach from Rio de Janeiro without a change of aircraft?
SDU serves 5 airports nonstop across 1 countries with 3 operating carriers, and counting every gate a courier in Rio de Janeiro can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 53 airports. That is the practical range of a single assignment from here before anybody has to connect.
03Getting from Rio de Janeiro to the Emirates: nonstop or not?
From Rio de Janeiro the best single change is São Paulo (GRU), and GRU to DXB is flown by Emirates, about one departure a day. Counting a normal connection that is around 17h 20m gate to gate, so an assignment between Rio de Janeiro and the Emirates is planned as a connecting itinerary and the desk books the whole thing on one ticket.
04Do I have to live in the UAE to be on this list?
No. OnBoard Courier is a UAE company and the desk is in Dubai, but the courier list is worldwide. Living in Rio de Janeiro, 6 minutes from SDU, is a qualification rather than an obstacle.
05Does it cost anything to apply?
No. There is no fee to join the Rio de Janeiro list and no deposit of any kind. The Academy is AED 199 once, and that AED 199 is added back on top of what you are paid for your first completed assignment.
06How is my fee agreed?
The desk sends the routing, the timing and the fee for that specific assignment in writing. You accept or decline it. Nothing is deducted or charged without your written agreement.
Apply to fly out of SDU
Apply once and you are on the list for SDU and for every other lane your passport allows. Declining an offer out of SDU costs you nothing.
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