Air freight to Laos from the United Kingdom is handled end to end by our own air desk: full-service air cargo and logistics, pallet delivery, road freight, excess baggage, consolidated airfreight and project cargo. We are based at London Heathrow with daily uplift, and also load from Manchester, East Midlands, Stansted and Gatwick. Services run airport to airport, door to airport and door to door subject to clearance, with a typical transit of 4-6 days into Vientiane depending on flight times and screening.
Laos has 42 airports recorded in total and we can route cargo to any of them that accepts commercial freight, working principally through Vientiane (VTE), Luang Prabang (LPQ) and trucking inland from the gateway where the consignee sits away from the airport. If you are a passenger with more luggage than the airline will take, our unaccompanied baggage service to Laos moves boxes and cases at a fraction of excess baggage rates.
Air Freight Rates: UK to Laos
Get a firm rate- Cargo under 100kg
- £5.00 – £8.10 per kgPer chargeable kilo on consolidated services, minimum charge applies
- Cargo over 100kg
- £3.00 – £4.90 per kgPer chargeable kilo, with further steps at 300kg, 500kg and 1,000kg
- Airline charges
- £133 – £222Fuel and security surcharge, air waybill fee and terminal handling
- UK export entry & screening
- £45 + £0.16 per kgCustoms declaration plus Regulated Agent security screening
- Airport handling in Laos
- payable at destinationTerminal handling, storage after free time and local clearance fees
- Transit time
- 4-6 daysAirport to airport into Vientiane
Indicative figures for planning only. Chargeable weight is the greater of actual weight and volume ÷ 6,000. Rates to Laos move with fuel, capacity and season — we confirm a firm all-in figure with your quote.
Air cargo shipment to Laos: how the process works
Rates quoted on this page cover carriage to the airport in Laos and do not include arrival charges such as terminal handling, documentation, customs clearance, examination, quarantine or inspection, import duties, taxes or storage after free time. Those are set locally, and we show them as estimates on the quotation so the landed cost you compare is the real one.
- Contact us
- Send the weight and the length, width and height of every piece going to Laos, plus the commodity.
- Weight
- Consolidated air cargo to Laos starts at 45kg chargeable with no upper limit; smaller pieces go on our express service.
- Collection
- Same-day and next-day collection across the UK, or drop the cargo at our Heathrow-area facility.
- Screening and build
- Security screening at our Regulated Agent facility, then build-up and manifesting to the booked flight.
- Flight and clearance
- Uplift to Vientiane with the air waybill shared for tracking, then customs clearance and delivery by our agent in Laos.
Air freight services to Laos
- Door to door delivery with clearance and final-mile in the destination country
- Door to airport freight logistics for consignees who prefer to clear locally
- Third-party and cross-trade shipping on your account or ours
- Temperature-controlled transportation for pharma, perishables and cool chain
- Dangerous goods packing and declaration to IATA rules — batteries, chemicals, aerosols, paints
- Commercial export packing, palletising, crating and labelling
- Excess and unaccompanied baggage carrying services to Laos
Low-cost commercial air freight to Laos
We hold competitive commercial air freight rates to Laos through direct contracts with the carriers serving Vientiane, with daily departures from Heathrow and same-day or next-day collection anywhere in the UK. That combination is what gets urgent commercial cargo onto a flight the day it is released rather than the day after. Full tracking against the air waybill runs from collection to delivery, so you can see where the consignment is while it is still on the road.
- UK-wide collection
- Same-day and next-day collection from any address, auction, factory or warehouse.
- Export packing
- Palletising, crating, shrink-wrapping and dangerous goods packing to airline standards.
- Documentation
- Export customs entries, consular and legalised paperwork, certificates of origin.
- Security
- Pre-flight screening at our Regulated Agent facility and delivery direct to the airline.
- Carrier access
- Contracted capacity with the main carriers serving Vientiane and the wider Asia network.
- Destination
- Customs clearance and delivery in Laos handled by our nominated agent.
Personal air freight and excess baggage to Laos
We are as comfortable moving a student's boxes as a pallet of machine spares. For personal air freight to Laos — a few extra cases, a family's effects, a motorbike or a small vehicle — we supply free boxes, bubble wrap and packing tape anywhere in the UK, and our packing crews can wrap furniture at your home and take it to the airport for you. On arrival our agent in Laos handles clearance and delivery to your new address, or you can take the cheaper door-to-airport option and collect the goods from the terminal yourself. Wooden transit cases are made to size for fragile and high-value items.
Consolidated airfreight to Laos
Our consolidated airfreight service to Laos is often cheaper than buying direct from the airline and, on small shipments, competitive with sea freight once handling and clearance are counted. Your cargo travels with other clients' freight on a single master air waybill to our partner in Laos, which cuts the per-kilo rate and reduces the number of separate clearances. With departures at least twice a week, the day or two added in consolidation is usually offset by the saving against carrier rates.
Air cargo collection across the UK for Laos
As an international freight forwarder we collect air cargo and personal effects bound for Laos from Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London (North, East, South and West), Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Reading, Sheffield, Southampton, Swindon, Kingston upon Hull. Give us the weights and measurements and we will quote a per-kilo or all-in figure; if you only need airport-to-airport carriage we will price that too, and tell you plainly which option lands cheaper once handling at Vientiane is included.
Which airports in Laos we fly into
Of the 42 airports in Laos, commercial cargo is concentrated on a handful of gateways with bonded terminals and customs presence. We normally route through Vientiane (VTE), Luang Prabang (LPQ), then truck inland where the final delivery point sits away from the airport. If your consignee is closer to a regional field, tell us the town and we will price the nearest viable option.
Documentation for air shipments to Laos
A clean clearance in Laos depends on the paperwork matching the cargo exactly. We prepare and check the full set before departure:
- Commercial invoice showing values, Incoterm and full consignee details
- Packing list agreeing piece for piece with the invoice
- Air waybill issued by us or the carrier
- Certificate of origin where Laos requires it for duty purposes
- Licences, health or phytosanitary certificates for controlled goods
- Personal effects declaration and inventory for unaccompanied baggage
How the rate to Laos is built
An air freight price is never a single number. It starts with the chargeable weight — the greater of the scale weight and the volume of each piece divided by 6,000 — then adds the airline's fuel and security surcharges, the air waybill fee, terminal handling at the UK gateway and screening at our Regulated Agent facility. Collection, export customs and any licences sit alongside it, and clearance and delivery in Laos complete the landed cost. We quote all of it together so you can compare like with like.
Because the per-kilo rate steps down as consignments get heavier, the way cargo is packed often changes the price more than the routing does. Reducing a pallet by ten centimetres in height can drop it into a lower volumetric band; splitting a consignment across two flights can push both halves into a higher one. Send us the piece dimensions before you build the pallets and we will tell you which shape is cheapest to fly.
Transit times and flight options to Laos
Airport to airport transit into Vientiane runs about 4-6 days on our standard consolidated service, including build-up, screening and the connection at the transit hub. Express bookings on direct flights cut that down where capacity allows, and next-flight-out is available for breakdown spares where the freight cost is irrelevant beside the cost of standing still.
Charter and part-charter make sense for project cargo, oversized pieces or relief work into Laos where scheduled hold dimensions will not take the freight. We price those case by case with the handling agent and the permits included.
- 1
Quote
Weights, dimensions and commodity confirmed, rate issued.
- 2
Collection
Cargo collected in the UK and re-weighed at our facility.
- 3
Screening
Security screening and build-up for the booked flight.
- 4
Flight
Departure to Vientiane, AWB tracking shared.
- 5
Delivery
Clearance in Laos, duty settled and delivery to the consignee.
Air freight cargo we handle to Laos
Every consignment is planned around the commodity, not squeezed into a single service.
General cargo
Cartons, crates and pallets of trade goods on consolidated or direct services into Vientiane.
Urgent spares & AOG
Next-flight-out bookings and hand-carry where a line or vessel is down.
Excess baggage
Boxes and suitcases for anyone relocating to or studying in Laos, collected from your door.
Perishables & pharma
Temperature controlled packaging, cool chain handling and logger monitoring.
Dangerous goods
IATA-classified batteries, chemicals, aerosols and paints packed and declared correctly.
Oversized & charter
Freighter capacity and part-charter for pieces beyond passenger hold limits.
Sea freight as an alternative
If the deadline allows, ocean freight to Laos typically runs 5-7 weeks and costs a fraction of the air rate on anything heavy or bulky. Compare a container shipment to Laos.