What do you do when you need to ship a car, but you can’t do it by conventional means? When trucks aren’t an option or when you can’t drive it yourself, what else can you do? Well, some people may just need to fly a car on a plane in order to move it.
You might be curious about the process of shipping a car to a different state. It’s easy to find auto transport services via truck or driveway service. But sometimes that’s just not doable. Shipping a car on a plane is not as easy as it sounds, though. We here at American Auto Shipping don’t handle those kinds of things, but we can tell you more about it nonetheless.
How shipping a car on a plane works
The first thing to understand about shipping a car on a plane is that it’s expensive. In fact, it’s the most expensive mode of moving a car. We’ll discuss why it’s the most expensive a bit further down, but for now, just know it’s the most expensive way of shipping a car.
Typically, if you do ship a car on a plane, you need to be prepared to get it to the airport. It’ll need to fly out on a cargo plane, and it’s going to be really expensive to do it. But really, it’s just like moving any other piece of cargo via plane. You get the cargo to the airport, they load it on the plane, they fly it to the delivery location, and you pick it up.
Your transportation company will have more specifics about how shipping a car on a plane works. This will include exactly how to get it to and from the airports and any information you need about preparing your vehicle to be loaded onto a plane.
Who benefits by shipping a car on a plane?
Most people who need to transport a vehicle will go through more conventional methods, but sometimes a plane is the most feasible way. If you’re shipping overseas, for instance (though overseas shipping is often cheaper via cargo ship rather than cargo plane).
However, shipping a car by plane is typically reserved for extremely valuable, unusual, or exotic car that requires special handling. During our years in the auto transport industry, we’ve seen a lot of customers who want to ship their vehicle by air, and it’s nearly always a vehicle with a high monetary or sentimental worth.
That doesn’t mean it’s doable, of course. But typically, people who have high-end luxury vehicles and a lot of disposable income will prefer air freight to ground freight.
Most cars currently on the road have a value far lower than the cost of shipping the car via aircraft, which would, in most cases, be multiple times higher than the car’s worth!
Factors that affect the cost of shipping a car by plane
Factors that affect the cost of shipping a car by plane
The cost of shipping a car, regardless of the mode of transportation used, is heavily influenced by the total distance it must travel. Because shipping goods via air is more expensive than other ways, the whole cost will likely be thousands of dollars.
By truck you’re looking at a few hundred to maybe a bit over a thousand dollars, depending on how far it’s going and what you’re shipping. By plane, though, you could see prices go three or even five times as high!
But that’s mostly because auto transport trucks don’t run on jet fuel. Not only that, but it’s a lot cheaper to maintain a transport truck than a cargo plane.
Cargo planes have main two factors that contribute to the cost: weight and fuel. Fuel is important as it determines how far the plane can travel and is especially important for longer distances such as overseas.
Simply put, the more cargo (weight) a plane has, the less fuel it can take. As such, it has a shorter range. But the more fuel a plane has, the less cargo it can carry. So it’s a balancing act. When it comes to private vehicles being shipped on cargo planes, weight and fuel are still factors. As such, it’s going to cost a lot more for you to move it.
So why ship a car by plane
It is generally agreed that shipping an automobile via airplane offers the highest level of security in addition to being the fastest method of transporting a vehicle.
However, over-the-road enclosed transportation services offer a much cheaper alternative. They may take a few more days than shipping by plane, but the vehicle is just as safe. In fact, it may be even safer – transport trucks don’t operate at 30,000 feet in the air!
If cost isn’t a factor, but time is, shipping a car by plane can be worth it. Otherwise, we recommend finding a quality over-the-road transportation company, such as us here at American Auto Shipping. Truck transport is the tried-and-true method of transporting vehicles across the United States, after all.
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Since 2007 Dave has written all the content and blogs for American Auto Shipping and during this time added the duties of customer support and transport logistics.
He currently resides in Washington with his three kids and their mom and cat. A fan of Marvel movies and good stories, when not shipping cars Dave can be found working on his novel, enjoying a good book or playing some tournament HALO.
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