Your AOG part needs to fly out of Shanghai tonight. The forwarder just told you the next available space is Tuesday. For $8 per kilogram.
Trump’s 100% tariff deadline has every company with Chinese inventory booking airfreight like their business depends on it. Because it does. The same carriers that usually have space for your emergency shipments are loading yoga mats and phone cases instead. Golden Week ended, factories fired back up, and suddenly shipping from China to the USA became everyone’s emergency, not just yours.
You’ve got a 737 sitting useless on the tarmac. The airline loses $150,000 per day. Yet, some retailer that sat on its holiday orders all summer just outbid you for cargo space with products that could travel by sea.
It’s not even November 1 yet, and the tariffs set to kick in then have already changed everything.
Those yoga mats competing with your AOG part? They cost $10 to manufacture. After November 1, the importer pays $20 just to clear customs. That math turned every procurement manager into your competition overnight.
Companies doing the numbers realized that paying $6/kg for airfreight beats paying a 100% tariff. A container of electronics worth $100,000 becomes a $200,000 liability if it arrives late. Suddenly, that $30,000 air cargo bill looks like genius.
The November 10 tariff truce might extend, might not. CEOs won’t gamble on “might.” They’re converting ocean bookings to air right now, treating their regular inventory like you treat an aircraft-on-ground situation.
Except their “emergency” involves profit margins, not stranded passengers.
Even if you’re shipping mission-critical parts to solve an AOG crisis, the market won’t make exceptions. Plan for these three knock-ons and build countermeasures now.
Your AOG status used to open doors. Now it barely gets you a callback.
Tech giants booked every charter flight through November. They’re launching holiday products and won’t risk tariff exposure on millions in inventory. Your single pallet of engine parts? Good luck competing with Apple’s next iPhone shipment.
North China ran out of space first because that’s where the factories cluster. Shippers that normally book three days ahead started booking three weeks ahead. They grabbed every slot, every BSA, every confirmed booking they could find. Your forwarder offers Hong Kong as an alternative, but that routing adds 24 hours you don’t have.
The dangerous goods line tells the whole story. Last month, lithium battery clearances took four hours. Today, three days. Everyone shipping from China to the USA forgot the same thing: Panic doesn’t exempt you from paperwork.
Space scarcity created a pricing free-for-all, and you’re the mark at the poker table.
Airlines discovered shippers will pay anything to avoid a 100% tariff. So rates jump 20% between your morning coffee and lunch. You request a quote at $5/kg. Four hours later, the same forwarder says $6.50/kg, take it or leave it.
You take it because what choice do you have?
But here’s what nobody tells you until it’s too late: Rushing goods out of China means nothing if they clear U.S. customs after November 1. You pay expedition fees to fly on October 30. Your shipment lands on October 31 at 11 p.m. Customs processes it on November 2.
Congratulations, you just paid premium shipping to guarantee yourself the maximum tariff hit.
Meanwhile, every handler knows you’re cornered. Fuel surcharges materialize. Documentation fees triple. That $30,000 you budgeted for emergency shipping becomes $45,000 after everyone takes their crisis cut.
When you rush without thinking, speed makes you stupid, and stupid gets expensive fast.
Your shipping clerk normally handles 10 airway bills daily. This week she’s processing 40. She mistypes one HTS code — swaps two digits while rushing through paperwork. Under normal tariffs, that’s a headache. Under 100% tariffs, that’s a crisis.
Customs already tightened screening after the de minimis changes. Agents who rubber-stamped small shipments now examine everything. Add thousands of panicked shippers flooding the system, and processing times stretch beyond recognition.
Your broker can’t save you either. They’re managing 50 other companies’ tariff panic while your legitimate AOG emergency gets buried in the pile. Power of attorney expires. Bonds hit limits. Certificates vanish. Each problem needs fixing while your aircraft sits useless, hemorrhaging $150,000 daily.
The other shippers’ “emergencies” might be manufactured, but money talks, and theirs is the same as yours.
Your AOG emergency just became one scream in a stadium. You need a partner who treats real emergencies like real emergencies, even when everyone else claims the same urgency. That’s where we come in at Carrier 911.
The November 1 tariff turned shipping from China to the USA into a rumble over cargo space. Every company with Chinese inventory discovered the word “urgent,” and your legitimate AOG emergencies got lost in the noise. Tech companies charter planes. Retailers who ignored logistics all year long outbid you for space. Airlines jack rates hourly because they know panic pays a premium.
But once those wheels touch U.S. soil, the game changes.
No, we can’t fix the air cargo mess or make tariffs disappear. But we own the ground game from the second your freight touches U.S. soil. While your competitors wait for their “urgent” shipments to clear backlogs, we’re pulling your AOG parts from airport chaos, preclearing DG paperwork, and burning rubber to your hangar. We built Carrier 911 for real emergencies, back when that word meant something. Your aircraft needs parts now, not when the market decides yoga mats aren’t urgent anymore.
See a Carrier 911 demo today to learn more.
Get a free consultation call with one our specialists.
