Every day, thousands of air cargo export decisions are made across Europe. Freight forwarders choose which airline to book, which airport gateway to use, and whether cargo should move by air, road feeder service, or a combination of both. These choices determine how quickly, reliably, and efficiently goods reach global markets. Yet despite their importance, the decision-making process behind them remains surprisingly underexplored. In industry terms, it is often driven by relationships, experience, trust, price, timing, commodity requirements, and operational constraints. In academic terms, however, it remains something of a “black hole” – one that Floris de Haan, University Lecturer, Erasmus UPT, aims to shed light on.
This is the focus of a PhD research project being conducted by Floris de Haan with the Air Transport Management group at Cranfield University in the UK. The study examines how European freight forwarders make decisions when selecting airlines, airports and trucking companies. It seeks to identify the factors that influence those choices and, crucially, how much weight freight forwarders attach to each factor in practice.
Where did the impulse for the PhD come from?
The research idea grew out of direct experience in the air cargo industry. During Floris de Haan’s time as Cargo Marketing Director at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, it quickly became clear that air cargo is a well-established business-to-business environment. Decisions are often shaped by a simple but powerful logic: “I know you, I trust you, let’s do business.” Coming from a technical background, de Haan wanted to understand what sits beneath that logic. Why does a freight forwarder choose airline X one day and airline Y the next? What role do price, reliability, capacity, communication, speed, connectivity, and personal relationships really play?
Learning from history?
“When I began reviewing the available literature, I found that there is hardly any scientific research on freight forwarder decision-making in air cargo. Some useful studies exist from Asia, particularly from Taiwan and South Korea, but there is nothing that reflects the European context. That matters because there are good reasons to believe that decision-making in Europe is done differently than in Asia, as its customs environment, industrial structure, geography, airport network, and extensive use of road feeder services create a very different decision landscape from many Asian markets,” de Haan explains. “So that immediately provided me with what we call a research gap, or in more popular terms, ‘the black hole’.”
Initial research
“I approached this research by interviewing people in the air cargo industry, from freight forwarders to airlines, trucking companies, airports and consulting experts in the field. Those interviews provided the key decision factors of European based freight forwarding companies,” de Haan says. Unsurprisingly, price plays an important role in the decision making of freight forwarders. However, not always, since certain high value commodities require non-stop transport connections, while other commodities require excellent communication between freight forwarder and shipper or consignee. “So, it’s a mix and what I am now looking for is the weight of all these identified factors based on which freight forwarders decides for specific airlines, trucking companies and airports. To establish this, I have set out a survey in which I ask European based freight forwarding companies to participate – I hope I can encourage CargoForwarder Global’s European-based readers to participate in this survey, so as to generate a larger, more reliable data set.”
The aim of the survey
The aim of the survey is to build a framework that can better explain, and potentially predict, how freight forwarders select airlines, airports and trucking companies. Such a framework will not remove the human element from decision-making. On the contrary, it will help the industry understand it more clearly. In a market where trust, reputation and relationships remain important, structured insight can help show when those softer factors interact with operational and commercial criteria.
Who benefits?
The findings should be valuable for several parts of the air cargo ecosystem. Airlines, trucking companies and airports will be better able to tailor their propositions if they understand what freight forwarders actually value.
The research also has a forward-looking dimension. Artificial intelligence and digital booking tools are likely to play a larger role in translating shipper needs into transport decisions. Before such systems can support or automate decision-making effectively, however, the industry needs a better understanding of how those decisions are made today. This research can therefore contribute not only to academic knowledge, but also to future digitalization in air cargo.
If you are a European Freight Forwarder, please participate
“The survey is open to freight forwarders exporting from Europe and will run until 01AUG26, with preliminary results expected shortly after the summer. Obviously, for those interested, I am more than willing to share the anonymized results of this survey,” de Haan offers.” As Cranfield University is a member of TIACA, I am cooperating with TIACA’s forwarding members. However, the larger and more diverse the data set, the more reliable the eventual framework will be, and I therefore welcome freight forwarding survey participants from all over Europe.” If you would like to contribute, please click on the link here.
