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Cargo Airships Are Happening

(www.elidourado.com)
220 points elidourado | 1 comments | 14 Oct 24 16:31 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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voidUpdate ◴[15 Oct 24 13:00 UTC] No.41848119[source]▶
> "But for air freight service, end-to-end delivery takes a week or more, involving multiple parties: in addition to the air carrier and freight forwarder, at both the origin and destination, there is a trucking company, a warehouse, a customs broker, and an airport. Each touchpoint adds cost, delay, and the risk of theft or breakage."

How does an airship solve any of those problems? Its still got to go through customs and such, and still go through local truck delivery

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emmelaich ◴[15 Oct 24 17:46 UTC] No.41851062[source]▶
My reading is that it doesn't solve it, it just indicates there is a market for non-urgent freight in which airships could compete.
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1. psunavy03 ◴[15 Oct 24 20:13 UTC] No.41852639[source]▶
That exists and it's called ocean freight. Air freight is where you pay a premium to get a small amount of stuff there NOW. Ocean freight is what you use when you need 15 shipping containers of stuff there in a couple of weeks.

Whether there is any market for an "in between" mode is an open question, and it's the business case of these airships for better or worse.