Air Freight from China to USA: Gateways & Transit

China to USA air freight at a glance

Transit: 3–5 days airport to airport on direct services, 5–10 days door to door; 11–48 days port to port by sea.
Main Chinese gateways: Shanghai Pudong (PVG), Hong Kong (HKG), Guangzhou (CAN), Shenzhen (SZX) and Beijing (PEK, PKX).
Priced per kilo on chargeable weight: the greater of actual weight and length × width × height in cm ÷ 6,000.
No ISF on air: the carrier or forwarder sends ACAS data to CBP before loading.
Duties are the same as by sea: Section 301 and the forced-labor duty apply by HTS code, and the de minimis exemption is suspended (by executive order and CBP interim final rules; the statutory exemption ends July 1, 2027).

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Chinese airports that ship air cargo to the USA

Pick the departure airport nearest the factory, not the one with the best-known name: trucking a few hours to a second airport rarely beats flying from the closest one. Five gateways carry most China–US air cargo.

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Airport	Name	Serves
PVG	Shanghai Pudong	The Yangtze River Delta: Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang (Suzhou, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Yiwu). The world’s second-busiest cargo airport in 2025 (ACI World), with the widest choice of freighters to the USA.
HKG	Hong Kong	South China and the Pearl River Delta, with cargo trucked in from Guangdong. The world’s busiest cargo airport in 2025 (ACI World). Departing from Hong Kong does not change the origin: goods made in mainland China are products of China for US duty purposes.
CAN	Guangzhou Baiyun	Guangdong province: Guangzhou, Foshan and the furniture, lighting and apparel clusters around them.
SZX	Shenzhen Bao’an	Shenzhen and Dongguan, the electronics and hardware belt on the east side of the Pearl River Delta.
PEK / PKX	Beijing Capital and Beijing Daxing	North China: Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.

Factories nearer other airports with international cargo service, such as Hangzhou (HGH), Xiamen (XMN), Zhengzhou (CGO) or Chengdu (CTU, TFU), can ask for a routing from there; what is offered depends on the airline schedules at the time of booking.

US gateways for air cargo from China

Fly into the US airport closest to where the goods are going. Trucking from the gateway is part of the door-to-door time, so a Midwest warehouse is usually better served through Chicago than through Los Angeles.

Los Angeles (LAX). The main West Coast gateway for transpacific cargo, served from Airlift’s own Los Angeles office; Southern California distribution centers and onward trucking to the Southwest.
Chicago O’Hare (ORD). The central gateway for the Midwest, with freighter services from China; industrial parts, machinery and retail replenishment.
New York JFK and Newark (EWR). The East Coast gateways for the Northeast, served from Airlift’s own New Jersey office.
Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW). Texas and the neighboring states, with direct freighter services from Asia.
Atlanta (ATL) and Miami (MIA). The Southeast and Florida; Miami also for cargo transshipping onward to Latin America.
Anchorage (ANC). Many transpacific freighters route through Anchorage, the world’s third-busiest cargo airport in 2025 (ACI World), on the way to the lower 48. You book to the final gateway; the routing is the airline’s.

How long air freight from China to the USA takes, by service level

The flight itself takes hours. The rest of the time goes on the booking, export handling, screening, any hub connection, US customs and the truck at the end. These are planning ranges from Airlift’s Asia–US shipment history, not guarantees; the airline schedule at the time of booking governs.

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Service	Typical transit	What it means
Direct airport to airport	3–5 days	Scheduled freighter or passenger-aircraft hold space on a direct service. You deliver to the airport in China and collect at the US airport.
Connecting through a hub	Longer than 3–5 days	Cargo transfers in Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, Anchorage or another hub and can wait for space on the onward flight, most of all in peak season.
Consolidated air freight	3–5 days once it flies	Your cartons travel with other shippers’ under one master air waybill. It costs less per kilo but waits for the consolidation to close.
Door to door	5–10 days	Factory pickup, export clearance, the flight, the US customs entry through a licensed broker and delivery, on one booking.
Expedited or charter	The first flight that can make the date	Quoted per shipment when a scheduled service cannot meet the deadline, for line-down parts, launch stock or oversized pieces.
Ocean, for comparison	11–48 days port to port	By China–US port pair, on Airlift’s own shipments (10th to 90th percentile). West Coast ports are the shortest sail.

When capacity out of China gets tight

Chinese New Year. Factories close for one to several weeks in January or February; cargo rushes out before the holiday and space fills well ahead.
Golden Week. The national holiday in the first week of October slows factories, trucking and export clearance.
The fourth-quarter retail peak. From October to December, holiday and e-commerce stock competes for the same freighters; book early and expect surcharges to move.
Tariff deadlines. When a US tariff change is announced with a start date, importers rush cargo to arrive before it, and air space fills for those weeks.

Chargeable weight: what you are billed on

Air freight is charged per kilo on the chargeable weight, the greater of the actual gross weight and the volumetric weight. Volumetric weight is length × width × height in centimeters divided by 6,000, the IATA standard.

An example: 10 cartons of 60 × 40 × 40 cm weighing 12 kg each. Each carton has a volumetric weight of 16 kg, more than its 12 kg, so the shipment is billed at 160 kg, not 120 kg.

Much of what China ships to the USA by air (lighting, home goods, toys, apparel) is light for its size and pays on volume; machine parts, hardware and electronic components are dense and pay close to their actual weight. Packing tighter, shipping flat-packed, or palletizing to a lower height can bring a shipment back toward its actual weight before any rate is discussed.

Air cargo security: ACAS, screening and the air manifest

Air shipments to the USA are risk-assessed before they leave China. The data is filed by the carrier or the forwarder, not by the importer, but it is built from your commercial invoice and packing list, so those need to be right before the cargo is handed over.

Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS). The inbound air carrier, or an eligible filer such as the forwarder, sends ACAS data to CBP as early as practicable and no later than before the cargo is loaded onto the aircraft (19 CFR 122.48b). CBP can ask for more information or for screening before loading, or tell the carrier not to load.
Screening and acceptance. The cargo is security-screened and accepted by the airline before its cut-off at the departure airport, under the airline’s security program and the airport’s rules.
Air manifest. The carrier’s air manifest must reach CBP no later than four hours before the flight arrives in the USA (19 CFR 122.48a).
No ISF. The Importer Security Filing (19 CFR part 149) applies only to cargo arriving by vessel. There is no ISF on an air shipment from China.
Air waybill. The airline issues a master air waybill; on a consolidation the forwarder issues a house air waybill for your cartons. It is not negotiable and does not transfer title, unlike an ocean bill of lading.
Dangerous goods: not accepted by air. Airlift does not book dangerous goods by air. Lithium batteries, including batteries packed with or inside equipment, are dangerous goods under the IATA rules, so check the product before asking for an air quote.

US customs entry for air cargo from China

Airlift USA is not a customs broker. The entry is filed by a licensed customs broker, and Airlift coordinates the file, the duty estimate and the release with the broker so the cargo is not waiting on paperwork when it lands. Because the flight is short, the entry is normally prepared while the cargo is still in China and lodged before arrival.

Formal entry and a bond. Commercial shipments valued over $2,500, the informal entry ceiling in 19 CFR 143.21, go through formal entry, and CBP releases a formal entry only against a continuous or single-transaction customs bond (19 CFR 142.4).
De minimis is suspended. Duty-free de minimis treatment has been suspended for products of China and Hong Kong since May 2, 2025, and for all origins since August 29, 2025, by executive order. CBP wrote the suspension into its own regulations with two interim final rules published June 24, 2026, and the statutory exemption ends on July 1, 2027, under Public Law 119-21. Every commercial air shipment from China, however small, is entered and pays duty.
Fees. Air entries pay the Merchandise Processing Fee. The Harbor Maintenance Fee applies only to ocean cargo.
Other agencies. Product rules apply by air as by sea: FCC for radio-frequency devices, FDA for food, cosmetics and medical devices, a CPSC Children’s Product Certificate for toys and children’s products, and Lacey Act declarations for wood and plant products.
Forced-labor enforcement (UFLPA). CBP can detain goods it presumes were made wholly or partly in Xinjiang, or by an entity on the UFLPA Entity List, until the importer rebuts the presumption. Keep supplier and input records ready before the cargo flies.

Section 301 and other duties on air shipments from China

Duties follow the goods, not the mode. Flying cargo instead of shipping it in a container changes the freight bill, not the tariff: the same HTS code from the same country of origin pays the same duty either way. As of September 23, 2026, goods of Chinese origin can carry, on top of the normal HTS rate:

Section 301 China tariffs. 25% on goods on USTR’s Lists 1, 2 and 3 and 7.5% on List 4A, by HTS subheading, with higher rates on product groups raised in the four-year review. Some product exclusions are in force and must be claimed on the entry.
The Section 301 forced-labor duty. 12.5% on most products of China since July 24, 2026, with exemptions for goods under listed Section 232 headings and the products in U.S. note 52(b) of HTS Chapter 99.
Section 232 and AD/CVD. Section 232 duties where the product is covered, and antidumping or countervailing duties where a product falls within an order’s scope; scope is decided product by product.

Rates change by executive action and Federal Register notice, so the rate that counts is the one for your HTS code on the day of entry. Classify the product first, then check it in the tariff simulator.

What to send for an air freight quote from China

Airlift quotes air freight per shipment, with the freight, surcharges, handling, the customs entry and delivery on separate lines. To quote it, we need:

The supplier’s city or address in China, or the departure airport if you already know it.
The US delivery address, or the arrival airport for airport-to-airport.
Carton or pallet count, with the dimensions and gross weight of each.
What the goods are, and the HTS code if you know it; say whether anything contains a battery.
The date the cargo will be ready, and the date it must arrive.
Airport to airport or door to door, and the Incoterms rule agreed with the supplier (EXW or FOB, for example).

Send the details for an air freight quote

How Airlift handles air freight from China

Airlift USA (AIRLIFT (U.S.A.), INC.) has been in business since 1999. It is an FMC-licensed NVOCC (OTI license 016162), listed in IATA’s CargoLink directory as an IATA cargo agent, and a TSA-regulated Indirect Air Carrier for exports from the United States.

Airlift has no office of its own in China. Licensed agents there handle factory pickup and export clearance with China Customs; Airlift books the flight with its airline partners, and its own offices in Los Angeles and New Jersey run the US side: the customs entry through licensed customs brokers, recovery from the airline and delivery through contracted trucking.

Air and ocean on the same lane go through the same team, so an order that misses a sailing can move to air without changing forwarder, and the rest of it can still go by sea (11–48 days port to port).

Get an air freight quote from China

Tell us the origin, the destination, the cargo and the container size or weight. We reply with the rate, the routing and what the rate includes.

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Name

Email address

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Shipment details

Please add: Supplier city in China, US delivery address or airport, cartons/pallets with dimensions and gross weight, commodity, ready date

We reply to quote requests normally within one business day.

FAQ

China air freight questionsQuick answers

How long does air freight from China to the USA take?

Airport to airport, 3–5 days on direct services, longer where cargo connects through a hub; door to door, 5–10 days including export handling, US customs clearance and final-mile trucking. By sea the same lane takes 11–48 days port to port. These are planning ranges from Airlift’s shipment history, not guarantees.

Which airports in China ship air cargo to the USA?

Most China–US air cargo leaves Shanghai Pudong (PVG), Hong Kong (HKG), Guangzhou (CAN), Shenzhen (SZX) or Beijing (PEK, PKX). Shanghai serves the Yangtze River Delta, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen the Pearl River Delta and South China, and Beijing North China. It lands at Los Angeles (LAX), Chicago (ORD), New York (JFK), Newark (EWR), Dallas (DFW), Atlanta (ATL) or Miami (MIA).

How is air freight from China charged?

Per kilo on chargeable weight: the greater of the actual gross weight and the volumetric weight, which is length × width × height in centimeters divided by 6,000. 10 cartons of 60 × 40 × 40 cm at 12 kg each are billed at 160 kg, not 120 kg. Fuel and security surcharges, origin and destination handling, the customs entry and delivery are quoted on their own lines; duties are paid to CBP on the value of the goods.

Do I need an ISF for air freight from China?

No. The Importer Security Filing applies only to cargo arriving by vessel. For air, the inbound carrier or an eligible filer such as the forwarder sends Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) data to CBP before the cargo is loaded in China (19 CFR 122.48b), and the carrier’s air manifest is due no later than four hours before arrival (19 CFR 122.48a).

Do Section 301 tariffs apply to air shipments from China?

Yes. Duties follow the goods, not the mode, so Section 301, the 12.5% Section 301 forced-labor duty in force since July 24, 2026, Section 232 and any AD/CVD order apply to an air shipment exactly as they would to the same goods in a container. Air entries pay the Merchandise Processing Fee but not the Harbor Maintenance Fee. Check the rate for your HTS code on the day of entry.

Can small air shipments from China still enter duty-free under de minimis?

No. Duty-free de minimis treatment has been suspended for products of China and Hong Kong since May 2, 2025, and for all origins since August 29, 2025; CBP codified the suspension in interim final rules published June 24, 2026, and the statutory exemption ends on July 1, 2027. Every commercial shipment from China is now entered and pays duty, however small.

Who clears my air shipment from China through US customs?

A licensed customs broker files the entry. Airlift USA is not a customs broker: it coordinates the entry through its licensed broker network, with the duty estimate prepared before the flight lands. Shipments over $2,500 go through formal entry under a continuous or single-transaction customs bond.

Can you fly electronics with lithium batteries from China?

No. Airlift does not book dangerous goods by air, and lithium batteries are dangerous goods under the IATA rules, including batteries packed with or inside equipment. Tell us what is in the cartons before you ask for a quote; battery-powered goods can be quoted by sea instead.

Does Airlift have an office in China?

No. Airlift USA has no office of its own in China. Licensed agents there handle factory pickup and export clearance, and Airlift’s own offices in Los Angeles and New Jersey handle the US customs entry through licensed customs brokers, recovery from the airline and delivery.

How do I get an air freight quote from China to the USA?

Use the quote form on this page. Include the supplier’s city in China, the US delivery address or airport, the carton or pallet count with dimensions and gross weight, the commodity and its HTS code if you know it, whether anything contains a battery, the ready date and the date it must arrive. Air freight is quoted per shipment; the online rate search covers ocean freight only.

Air Freight from China to the USA