Land-Air & Sea-Air: The Smart Way to Cut Logistics Costs

When ocean freight is too slow and air is too expensive, multimodal routing offers the best of both worlds. Here's how we build optimised routes.

The Multimodal Advantage

Pure air freight is fast but expensive — often 5–8x the cost of ocean freight. Pure ocean is economical but slow — 18–35 days from Asia to Europe. Multimodal routing breaks the trade-off by combining the best segments of each mode to hit your delivery window at a fraction of the all-air cost.

Sea-Air Routing: How It Works

In a typical Sea-Air route from China to the UK, cargo travels by ocean to Dubai (12–14 days), then by air from Dubai to London (1 day). Total transit: 13–15 days vs. 28 days all-sea, and 40–50% cheaper than all-air. Dubai, Singapore, and Colombo are the most common Sea-Air transhipment hubs.

For our client exporting pharmaceutical components from Kolkata to Frankfurt, a Sea-Air route via Dubai saved 38% on freight costs while meeting a 16-day delivery requirement.

Land-Air Routing for South Asia

For Nepal and Bhutan-bound cargo that needs to clear India quickly, a Land-Air combination moves goods by road to the nearest international airport (Kolkata or Delhi), then flies to the destination or to a connecting hub. This is particularly useful for time-sensitive retail and pharma shipments.

Choosing the Right Combination

The right multimodal route depends on:

Delivery deadline and transit time tolerance
Cargo type (hazardous, temperature-sensitive, high-value)
Origin and destination pairs
Current carrier availability and rates

How Empire Logistics Plans Your Route

Our routing desk runs cost-time optimisation across our carrier network before recommending a solution. We factor in hub transit times, airline schedules, and border congestion forecasts to give you a realistic, executable plan — not just a quote.

Talk to our multimodal team to explore how we can reshape your supply chain economics.