Woodland Group moves air freight through all of the UK's main cargo gateways, principally London Heathrow, East Midlands, London Stansted, Manchester and Birmingham. Our Hayes site sits alongside the Heathrow cargo area, and our Coventry, Dewsbury, Doncaster and Manchester sites feed the Midlands and northern gateways on our own fleet. Which gateway is right depends on your lane, your cargo and your cut-off, and we will route to the one that actually gets the shipment there rather than the one nearest our door.

London Heathrow is by far the UK's busiest air cargo airport, handling 1,549,027 tonnes in 2025, around 58% of all UK air cargo. East Midlands is second with 382,747 tonnes, driven by dedicated freighters and express operators, and London Stansted third with 298,567 tonnes. Heathrow's dominance comes from bellyhold capacity on long-haul passenger flights, which is why high-value and time-critical cargo tends to route through it even when the shipper is nowhere near London. Figures are from Civil Aviation Authority airport data for 2025.

Air freight into the UK typically takes 2 to 4 days airport to airport from Asia, 1 to 2 days from North America, and same or next day from mainland Europe, with door to door adding roughly two days for collection, clearance and final delivery. Deferred and consolidated services usually add 2 to 4 days in exchange for a lower rate. Chinese New Year, Q4 peak and UK bank holidays extend all of these, so book earlier through those windows.

UK air freight is priced on chargeable weight multiplied by the rate per kilo for that lane and service level, plus fuel and security surcharges, airline and terminal handling, and any screening, customs clearance, collection or final delivery. Chargeable weight is whichever is greater: actual gross weight, or volumetric weight calculated as length x width x height in centimetres divided by 6,000 per piece. Rates move with capacity and season, so a quote holds for a defined period rather than indefinitely. The estimate tool above gives an indicative range in seconds.

No. You do not need known consignor status to export air freight from the UK, because a CAA approved regulated agent can screen the cargo on your behalf. Known consignor status lets you secure cargo at your own premises so it does not need screening later, which suits high volumes and cargo that is difficult to x-ray, but it requires a formal application, a site security programme and staff vetting. Woodland Group is a regulated agent and screens in its own facilities, so most customers do not need to hold the status themselves.

Woodland Group files UK import declarations in-house through CDS as part of the air freight service, so you do not need to appoint a separate customs broker. Every commercial air freight import into the UK needs a declaration filed by someone authorised to do it, and keeping it with your forwarder means one party is accountable for the freight and the entry. We hold AEO authorisation from HM Revenue & Customs and pre-lodge entries against airline arrival data, so clearance is done before the cargo is ready to move.

An ETSF, or External Temporary Storage Facility, is a site approved by HMRC to hold air cargo that has arrived in the UK but has not yet been customs cleared. Without one, uncleared cargo stays in the airline or handling agent's shed until clearance is complete, on their timetable and at their storage rates. Woodland Group operates its own ETSF facilities, so import cargo moves off the airport into our building, is cleared by our own customs team, and is unpacked, inspected or delivered from there. For anyone importing regularly it removes a handover, a supplier and a category of charge you cannot control.

Yes. Woodland Group operates its own UK fleet of more than 150 vehicles from 14 sites, covering collection and delivery nationwide without relying on subcontractors. That fleet moves over 100,000 full loads a year and is FORS Silver and DVSA Earned Recognition accredited. Because the road legs sit with the same team as the flight and the customs entry, a delay at one stage gets absorbed at the next rather than becoming your problem to solve.

Yes. Woodland Group is IATA DGR trained and ships dangerous goods from UK airports as standard, including lithium batteries, aerosols, paints and chemicals. Classification, packing instructions, shipper's declarations, labelling and airline acceptance are handled in-house rather than passed to a specialist. Send us the safety data sheet and we will confirm what can fly, on which aircraft type, and what it will cost, before you commit to anything.

Yes. Woodland Group moves pharmaceuticals, healthcare products, perishables and other climate-sensitive cargo under controlled conditions from UK collection through to final delivery. That covers qualified packaging, priority ramp handling, active or passive containers to suit the lane, and continuous monitoring visible in Woodland Online. Our UK warehousing includes temperature-controlled and BRCGS-rated space, so the cold chain does not break between the warehouse and the ramp.

UK airports handled 2.66 million tonnes of air cargo in 2025, up 4% on 2024 and the highest annual total in the CAA's current ten-year series. Around two thirds of it flew in the hold of scheduled passenger aircraft rather than on dedicated freighters. Heathrow alone accounted for 1.55 million tonnes, and Heathrow, East Midlands and Stansted together handled more than four fifths of the national total.

Send us the lane, the gross weight and dimensions, the commodity and the date you need it there, and we will come back with a routing, a rate and a realistic transit. The estimate tool on this page gives an indicative range in seconds if you want a number before you speak to anyone. For a firm quote we need dimensions rather than an estimated weight, because chargeable weight on low-density cargo is usually set by volume, not by the scales.

Air freight carries a small share of the UK's trade by weight and a very large share of it by value. Heathrow alone handled £293 billion of goods in 2025, more than a quarter of all UK trade by value, making it the UK's largest port by value ahead of every seaport, and around three-quarters of UK air cargo by value passes through it. That gap between weight and value is the case for the mode: businesses use air for the goods where speed, security or shelf life is worth more than the freight rate.

Every scheduled service we run has a contingency routing behind it, and we will move your cargo onto it rather than let it sit. On US lanes that usually means switching between JFK and Newark, or routing Boston freight through New York with a trucking leg. On Australian traffic it means an alternative gateway such as Melbourne. For UK imports, where capacity is genuinely tight we will bring cargo in through a European hub and truck the final leg. Seasonal capacity shortages and airline rate movements are the two things that most often disrupt an air booking, and both are more manageable when the alternative is decided in advance rather than on the day.