Sea vs air freight for clothing: cost, time and when to use each

Ship clothing by sea unless time is worth more than the freight bill. From Bangladesh, sea freight takes roughly three to five weeks port to port and is charged by space, which suits light, bulky garments. Air takes a few days but is charged on volumetric weight, which punishes bulky cartons. Most brands move bulk by sea and use air only for a launch date, a late order that would miss its season, or a small top-up. A split shipment, part by air and the rest by sea, often gives the best of both.

How long does each take from Bangladesh?

Almost all export garments leave through two gates: the sea port at Chattogram and Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka. SEKO Logistics, a global forwarder, publishes these typical transit times:

Those are transit times, not door-to-door times. For sea, add the truck to the port, waiting for the feeder vessel, the connection at a transshipment hub, unloading, customs clearance and delivery at your end. SEKO also notes that congestion at Chattogram in peak seasons can delay loading by three to seven days. A sensible plan counts from the date the goods pass final inspection, not the sailing date, and keeps a margin for a missed connection. How the route from Chattogram works, including transshipment, is explained on our region page.

How is sea freight charged? FCL and LCL

There are two ways to send clothing by sea.

• FCL (full container load). You book a whole container for a fixed rate, even if you do not fill it. It is sealed at the factory or port and opened at destination, so it is handled less and usually moves faster. Maersk suggests FCL from about 15 cubic metres upwards.
• LCL (less than container load). Your cartons share a container with other shippers’ cargo. You pay for the space you use, measured in cubic metres. Maersk’s LCL terms charge on volume or weight, whichever is higher, counting 1 cubic metre as 1,000 kg. The goods are consolidated at a freight station before loading and separated again at destination, which adds days and handling.

Garment cartons are far lighter than 1,000 kg per cubic metre, so LCL for clothing is in practice charged on volume alone. The same is true of full containers. Maersk’s specification gives a 20-foot container about 33 cubic metres of space and a payload of 28,200 kg; to hit the weight limit before the space ran out, your cartons would need to weigh over 850 kg per cubic metre. Clothing never does. You are buying space.

SEKO estimates that a 20-foot container takes roughly 10,000 to 12,000 garment pieces and describes the 40-foot high cube as the usual choice for light, bulky apparel. Your own number depends on the garment, the fold and the carton, so ask for the carton size and pieces per carton before you book. Once your LCL volume nears 15 cubic metres, price a 20-foot container as well; it is sometimes cheaper to pay for a box you do not fill.

How is air freight charged? Chargeable weight

Airlines charge on chargeable weight: the higher of the actual weight and the volumetric weight. The volumetric weight formula, which Maersk describes as the industry standard set by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), is:

Volumetric weight (kg) = length × width × height in centimetres ÷ 6,000

Some carriers, and express couriers in particular, divide by 5,000 instead, which makes the same carton 20% heavier on paper. Check the divisor on every quote. Here is how it plays out on three cartons. The sizes and weights are illustrative examples, not standard carton specifications.

Dense products such as denim are charged on real weight. Bulky ones such as fleece are charged on air: you pay for 20 kg of hoodies when the scale reads 13. That is why packing matters more for air than for anything else in the shipment. Flat folding, fewer tissue layers and cartons sized to the goods, rather than to a standard box, all reduce volumetric weight.

How to compare the two costs

Freight rates move weekly, so rather than quote figures that would be stale by the time you read this, here is the comparison to run with your forwarder’s rates.

1. Get the total volume of the order in cubic metres (carton length × width × height in metres × number of cartons) and the total gross weight.
2. Sea LCL: volume × rate per cubic metre, plus origin and destination charges.
3. Air: the greater of gross weight and volume × 166.7 (which is 1,000,000 cm³ ÷ 6,000), × rate per kg, plus charges.
4. Add clearance and delivery to both, divide each total by the number of pieces, and compare per piece.

The conversion in step 3 shows the structural gap. One cubic metre of cartons counts as one freight unit by sea but as about 167 chargeable kilograms by air. For a light garment, the air bill per piece is therefore many times the sea bill, and the gap matters least for small, dense or high-value goods, where freight is a small share of the price. Put both results into the landed cost calculator, since duty in markets such as the UK is charged on a value that includes freight, so expensive freight also raises duty and import VAT.

The carbon difference

If you report emissions, the choice of mode makes a large difference. The UK government’s 2025 greenhouse gas conversion factors give a long-haul freight flight about 0.53 kg of CO2 equivalent per tonne-kilometre, or 0.90 kg including the extra warming effect of emissions at altitude. An average container ship is given about 0.016 kg. Over the same distance, each kilogram flown therefore produces over 30 times the emissions of a kilogram shipped, before the extra warming effect is counted.

When air freight is worth it

• A fixed launch date that production has put at risk, where missing the date costs more than the freight.
• Seasonal goods running late, where sea delivery would land after the selling window and force markdowns.
• Small, urgent top-ups of a best-selling size or colour.
• Samples, lab dips and strike-offs, which normally travel by express courier rather than air cargo.
• Very small first orders, where the fixed charges of an LCL booking are large compared with the goods.

Air freight is rarely worth it simply because an order was placed late. Fix the calendar instead: count back from your launch date through sea transit, inspection and production, and book fabric early. Our page on how we work shows where those stages fall.

The case for split shipments

A split shipment sends a small part of the order by air to meet the launch, and the rest by sea to restock. For example, you might fly enough units to cover the first two or three weeks of sales and ship the remainder, sized so that the sea portion arrives before the air stock runs out. You pay air rates only on the units that earn them.

A simple way to size the air portion, with invented numbers for illustration: say you expect to sell 250 units a week after launch, and the sea shipment will arrive four weeks after the air shipment once clearance and delivery are counted. You would fly about 1,000 units (250 × 4) plus a margin for a stronger launch than forecast, and send the rest by sea. If the sea shipment is delayed at the hub, the margin is what keeps you in stock. Work out the weekly rate from your own sales history or pre-orders, not from hope, because every unit flown that does not sell in those weeks is freight you did not need to buy.

Plan three things before you agree a split:

• Inspection first. Both parts should come from goods that have passed final inspection, so the air portion is not an unchecked early batch. Our quality control process inspects before any release.
• Separate documents. Each shipment needs its own invoice, packing list, transport document and proof of origin, and each clears customs separately, so you pay broker fees twice.
• Size and colour mix. Decide which sizes and colours fly. Flying a full size run of a best-seller is usually better than flying a little of everything.

What to ask your forwarder or supplier

• Is the sea quote FCL or LCL, and on what volume and weight?
• What divisor does the air quote use: 6,000 or 5,000?
• Which transshipment hub, and what is the connection time there?
• What is included at origin and destination, and what will be billed separately?
• How many cartons, of what size, and how many pieces per carton?

What to do next

Ask for the carton plan with your quote, since it decides the freight cost for both modes. Our shipping and logistics page explains the documents and terms we work with from Chattogram and Dhaka, and you can send us your quantities and launch date for a sea and air comparison on the same order.