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Motorcycle Air Freight in 2021? Motorcycle Air Freight in 2021?
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Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



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Old 4 Jun 2021
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In addition to the above very useful description, a couple of things to consider:

1) I remember hearing that the North America to South America moto airfreight was significantly cheaper than the other way around, since airlines would fill up cargo space with things like fresh flowers in Colombia. But when the aircraft flies down there for pickup, there's much less stuff that is worth exporting by airfreight, so its cargo hold would often be empty.

2) Consider the Darien Gap and the fact that you will probably need to airfreight your bike across it anyway, now that the Stahlratte boat is no longer operating between Panama and Colombia. Consider the incremental cost between that and airfreighting it directly from your departure destination.

3) On the way back, you might as well choose cheaper container shipping back to a US port, since it's a much lesser problem for you if your bike is late coming *back* from the trip.
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Old 5 Jun 2021
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AnTyx View Post
...I remember hearing that the North America to South America moto airfreight was significantly cheaper than the other way around, since airlines would fill up cargo space with things like fresh flowers in Colombia. But when the aircraft flies down there for pickup, there's much less stuff that is worth exporting by airfreight, so its cargo hold would often be empty.
That's exactly what I was thinking of when I posted the "Miami to Bogotá" example above.
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Originally Posted by AnTyx View Post
On the way back, you might as well choose cheaper container shipping back to a US port, since it's a much lesser problem for you if your bike is late coming *back* from the trip.
A good idea, but pay very careful attention to what the various "port charges" are at each end if you choose to ship by sea. The entire air freight industry is oriented to getting shipments in and out of the origin & destination freight warehouses as fast as possible, so although there may be some port charges at destination for air freight, these charges are no-where near as plentiful (or expensive) as port charges at each end when you ship by sea.

I have heard of travelers who shipped their bikes by sea because the freight fee was less than half the air freight fee, but wound up paying more in the end than air freight would have cost because of port charges at each end of the sea shipment.
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