A registered indirect air carrier

When freight has to fly, the slowest part is rarely the flight — it’s everything that happens on the ground before it. Air cargo is tightly regulated by the TSA, and an unscreened, unprepared shipment can sit waiting for handling, screening, and documentation while the clock runs. Becoming an indirect air carrier (IAC) is how we take that bottleneck out.

Faster processing of shipments

As a registered IAC, RS Group can prepare, document, and tender air freight directly into the air cargo system under an approved security program. That means your time-critical shipment moves through screening and acceptance faster and more predictably, instead of waiting in a queue for a third party to process it. For freight where the whole point is speed, the ground time we save is the value.

What is an IAC?

An indirect air carrier is a company that engages indirectly in air transportation — it arranges and tenders cargo to be flown on the aircraft of a direct carrier (an airline), but doesn’t operate the aircraft itself. IACs are registered with and regulated by the TSA, operating under an approved security program that governs how cargo is accepted, screened, and secured before it’s handed to an airline. In short: an IAC is the trusted, vetted bridge between a shipper and the airlines that fly the freight.

Why we became an IAC

We pursued IAC status because our customers were already asking us to move freight that had to fly — and we wanted to own that leg the way we own the rest. Holding the registration ourselves means we control the preparation and tendering directly, rather than handing the shipment to an outside party and hoping it’s processed promptly. It keeps the same single-point-of-contact accountability our customers expect on the ground extended into the air.

Expanded business scope

IAC status broadened what we can do for shippers. It lets us add air freight to our service catalog alongside LTL, truckload, drayage, and warehousing — so a customer with a mix of ground and air needs works with one operator instead of stitching together vendors. It’s a natural extension of being a full-service 3PL: more of the supply chain, under one accountable roof.

Diverse transportation solutions

With air added to the mix, we can build genuinely multimodal solutions — air for the time-critical leg, ground for the rest, warehousing and transloading where it makes sense. A shipment can fly into a market and then move the final miles on our trucks, or be staged at our Atlanta warehouse between legs. The IAC registration is one more mode we can reach for when it’s the right tool, not a separate business the customer has to manage.

Competitive edge

For shippers, the edge is speed with accountability. Air freight is fast by definition; an IAC that processes it efficiently and stands behind it is faster and more reliable. Combined with our ground network and our Atlanta hub, it lets us solve urgent freight problems that a ground-only broker simply can’t.

Regulatory compliance

Air freight security is non-negotiable, and operating as an IAC means operating under the TSA’s approved security program — proper cargo screening, chain-of-custody handling, documentation, and the personnel and procedures the program requires. We treat that compliance as the foundation of the service, because a shipment that isn’t handled to standard doesn’t fly.

Strategic airline partnerships

The registration is only as good as the lift behind it. We work with airline partners to access the capacity and lanes that get time-critical freight where it needs to go on schedule — so when speed is the requirement, we have both the authority to tender the freight and the relationships to put it on a plane.