However, it comes with a price tag. Estimates by the World Bank suggest air freight is usually four to five times more expensive than road transport, and up to 16 times more than sea. This has typically meant only some products earn a plane ticket: certain fresh foods, time-sensitive documents, pharmaceuticals and cut flowers, for example.
Depends what you include as an expense. Air freight might take 5 days. Sea freight – even in good times – 45 days.
Say you had high value electronics. iPhones, say. $700 each, imagine. Cost of capital on $700 for 40 days is what? Further, it’s electronics, suffering a 1% per week (rough idea, you understand) depreciation rate.
Now, is air freight more expensive than sea or not? Tweak the numbers as you wish, but don’t forget to include that cost of capital plus depreciation.
Oh, Apple flies its iPhones. Funny that.