The situation
Thursday afternoon. An aircraft was on the ground in Tallinn. The part it needed was sitting in London.
The client did what everyone does in an AOG: sent the request to several brokers at once and waited to see who came back first with something workable. The 18:00 out of London City was the only same-day option. Three hours to make it happen.
The flight closes about 45 minutes before departure. That gave us until roughly 17:15 to get a courier through check-in with the part as hand luggage. Possible. Not comfortable.
Minute by minute
Most brokers check availability, build a quote, send it. A good one does that in about 20 minutes. When the only viable flight closes in 3 hours, 20 minutes is enough to lose the job before it starts.
Why 2 minutes mattered
The 18:00 was the only flight that worked. Miss it and the aircraft stays on the ground overnight. For a commercial jet that means tens of thousands in lost revenue per hour, plus re-booked passengers and a cascade of delays across the rest of the schedule.
Getting the offer to the client at 14:52 meant the decision was made while there was still time. A 20-minute quote response would have left 40 minutes to departure, which is very tight. A 45-minute response would have missed the flight.
How we got there that fast
We run our own flight ticketing agency. Availability and pricing across carriers comes back in seconds, not the 10-15 minutes it takes when you are going through a third party. The routing options are on screen before most brokers have even opened the enquiry.
When you already have the options, the call to the client is not about gathering information. It is about confirming the one thing you need to know: is the cargo ready to move right now. Everything else is already done.
Details anonymised. Outcome real.
New to AOG logistics? Start with our guide to AOG logistics or the basics of how an on-board courier works.