Air freight from Dili to Darwin possible?
 

Has anyone shipped their bike via airfreight from Dili to Darwin?
Seems like ferry schedules are quite "variable", so just wondering if this is an option and is it how much more expensive compared to ferry?

We tried to air freight out of Dili (to singapore) but the carrier (silk air) refused to carry dangerous goods. It's a pain in the tush with the inevitable sea freight delays. Air freight is possible however from Bali but reportedly pricey.

Thanks niello8 for the info. I want to ride also the other small islands, so flying from Bali is not an option. Which airline flights from Bali to Darwin?

Pecha is the hubb member who did air freight from Bali. Dili to Darwin carrier is Air North, check with them if they would carry the bike? Maybe they are more permissive than silk air.

Si, I’m not sure the logistics of that would work. :confused1:

Airnorth operates just a tiny fleet of three aircraft. The largest one – the jet that that usually flies Darwin<~~>Dili – is a 76-seater Embraer 170.

The cargo hold door dimensions of the E170 are:

• Forward cargo compartment = 1.10 m x 0.90 m
• Aft cargo compartment = 0.99 m x 1.10 m

Not much of a gap to fit a crated (or paletted) motorcycle through, even if it has been partially dismantled.

Despite the fact that Airnorth may also have a fairly low tolerance to Dangerous Goods (see this link) I strongly suspect - for maybe more than than one reason - Airnorth is probably a non-starter as far as shipping an adventure-type moto is concerned. Worth an enquiry though.

Keith
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Oh, they have such a tiny planes... Well, I will double check this, but seems like it is work with Toll...

I did send my DL650 from Bali to Perth using Qantas freight. Original plan was to go to Dili, but I arrived in Bali on exactly the same day, when the 2008 coup attempt had happened in East Timor. This freighting cost me about 1200 euros total for the bike, but probably half of that sum was because the aircraft that Qantas used on Bali-Perth route was not able to load the bike through its cargo doors. So the bike flew on a bigger planes from Bali to Melbourne to Perth (direct flight time Bali-Perth would´ve been a bit more than 3 hours, but like this, it was probably about 10 hours – would´ve been cheaper to send it to Melbourne, but I wanted to go Perth!) I asked Garuda Indonesia, that also had a direct flight to Perth, but they claimed their maximum package weight was 50 kilos (maybe they just didn´t want to get involved on the whole thing). And sea freight would have been also possible, but from Surabaya, Java, and taking some 3-5 weeks to reach Australia.


Under normal circumstances, I believe it should be possible to send from Dili using the Perkins (or Toll Marine) freight line to Darwin. Should be a lot cheaper as well.


A ´joker option´, but you´ll need lots of time, and also consider the risks, could be to try to catch some boat ride from Kupang, West Timor. Actually back then I was in talks with a guy named Bob La Macchia, who had some sort of small cargo boats going from Kupang to Oz, but at that time (February-08) it was the rainy season, high winds and rough seas, and he didn´t know, when the next departure would have been. I have no idea, if he is still in the business or not.

Many people have shipped their bikes this year from Dili, so it is working.
Only downside has been their inaccurate schedules...