Shippers are actively evaluating unusual routing options as elevated air cargo rates and persistent ocean port congestion continue to reshape freight decision-making, according to a Reuters report.

The report frames a market in which neither of the two primary freight modes is functioning on normal terms. Air cargo remains expensive. Ocean freight remains slow, with port congestion — the backlog of vessels waiting to berth and unload at major gateways — continuing to disrupt scheduled sailing patterns.

The consequence is that cargo owners are no longer choosing between the cheap option and the fast option. They are choosing between a costly option and an unreliable one, and in that environment unconventional routings become commercially rational.

What does this change for shippers?

What does this change for freight buyers? It changes the arithmetic of mode selection. When ocean transit times stretch because vessels queue outside congested ports, the effective time saving from switching to air narrows. At the same time, elevated air rates widen the cost penalty. The decision point moves, and for a larger band of cargo — components needed to keep production lines running, seasonal retail goods, high-value electronics — the balance now tips toward air despite the price.

Unusual routes, as described in the report, can take several forms:

• Shifting cargo from ocean to air freight outright on specific trade lanes
• Splitting consignments, moving a time-critical portion by air and the balance by sea
• Routing through alternate gateways to bypass the most congested ports
• Using combinations of sea and air legs to trade cost against transit time

The Reuters report does not name specific carriers, forwarders or trade lanes, and does not attach figures to the rate levels or congestion durations it describes. The core finding is directional: freight buyers are responding to sustained disruption by considering routings they would normally rule out on cost grounds.

Why both modes are under strain simultaneously

Air cargo rates typically soften when ocean freight flows normally, because much of the world's discretionary air freight — goods that can tolerate longer transit times — moves by sea. Sustained ocean gridlock reverses that dynamic. Displaced volumes look for air capacity at the same moment that capacity is scarce, and rates stay elevated for longer than seasonal patterns would predict.

For airlines, this is a tailwind in the belly-hold and freighter market. For shippers, it is a sustained cost pressure with no near-term relief valve. For forwarders, it is an operational puzzle: finding routings that deliver acceptable transit times without exhausting the customer's transport budget.

The practical consequences

The Reuters account points to several downstream effects that follow from this dual-mode strain:

• Supply chain planners face longer and less predictable door-to-door transit times on ocean routings
• Transport budgets absorb higher air freight spend on goods that cannot wait
• Routing decisions shift from routine procurement to case-by-case judgment
• Inventory strategies adjust, with some shippers holding more stock to buffer unreliable ocean transit

None of these effects resolves on its own. Elevated air rates reflect demand meeting constrained capacity. Ocean congestion reflects vessel arrivals exceeding port throughput. Both conditions take time and investment to clear — new freighter capacity does not appear quickly, and port backlogs unwind gradually even once vessel flows normalize.

What comes next

The report's framing suggests the current pattern persists rather than peaks: shippers are weighing, not having concluded, and the conditions driving them to unusual routes — high air rates and ocean gridlock — remain in place. Freight buyers will likely continue evaluating hybrid and alternative routings for as long as the gap between promised ocean schedules and actual delivery times stays wide, and until air capacity growth catches up with the demand displaced from the sea.