As shippers know all too well, the air freight market is under extraordinary pressure this year. Capacity shortages are especially severe due to product launches and flight cancellations that have coincided with the pre-holiday-season peak, but the growth in e-commerce has driven up air freight rates and space shortages all year.

The paradox of peak season is that space is least available when it’s most needed. For many of our clients, inventory readiness is never more important than leading into the holiday season. Waiting to ship is not an option.

At Flexport, we use a rolling 90-day Net Promoter Score to ensure we’re delivering the best service imaginable for our clients. Our current score is 63, on par with the most beloved products in the world, including the Apple iPhone. Keeping our score that high, and continuously driving it higher, informs everything we do—from guiding our product roadmap to factoring into our compensation plans. Our team is constantly looking for ways to serve our clients better.

That’s why I’m excited to announce that for the first time, Flexport will start chartering its own freighter flights from Hong Kong to Los Angeles. The first of these flights, on a 747 400, will depart on November 19, 2017. It will carry roughly 115 tonnes, or 375 pallets, of Flexport clients’ cargo, at a time when that kind of space is hard to come by.

This flight will be a major milestone for Flexport and it represents the tremendous gains we’ve made since entering the airfreight market in 2014. Most importantly, it represents our deep commitment to maintaining service levels for our loyal customers in the most important part of their business cycle. Next week’s flight is only the first of many more to come, as chartered freighters will become a regular Flexport service in 2018.

**Related: **

Announcing Flexport’s $110M Series C

The Newest Nodes in the Flexport Network: Cross-Docking Sites in Hong Kong & Los Angeles