UK to Kenya Shipping: Sea vs Air, Which Is Right for You?

The Choice in One Sentence

Fly what is urgent or valuable, ship by sea what is heavy and patient. Everything else is detail, and the detail is what this guide is for.

Air Cargo From the UK: Fast, Predictable, Priced Per Kilogram

Air freight from London Heathrow to Nairobi takes about 7 days door to door, including collection, export handling, the flight, and Kenyan customs clearance.

How air pricing works

You pay per chargeable kilogram, which is the greater of:

• The actual weight of your cargo on the scale
• The volumetric weight: length × width × height in centimetres, divided by 6000

A carton of clothing weighing 20 kg but measuring 60 × 50 × 50 cm has a volumetric weight of 25 kg, so you are billed for 25 kg, not 20.

Current rates start at £8.00 per chargeable kg plus £25 handling per shipment.

When air is the right call

• Electronics, phones, laptops: high value per kilogram, and every week in transit is a week of lost sales
• Spare parts: when a customer's machine is down, 7 days beats 45
• Samples and prototypes: you need to touch the product before committing to a container
• Fashion and seasonal stock: miss the season and the margin is gone
• Documents and contracts: nothing else moves this reliably

When air stops making sense

If your cargo is worth less than roughly £50 per kilogram and nobody is waiting for it urgently, air freight usually costs more than the goods are worth. A 200 kg shipment of low-margin retail stock at £8/kg is £1,600 in freight. The same box by sea is a fraction of that.

Sea Freight From the UK: Slow, Heavy, Unbeatable Per Kilogram

Sea freight from UK ports to Mombasa takes about 45 days port to door, all in.

How sea pricing works

You pay £3.25 per kg plus £25 handling for consolidated (LCL) cargo. Your boxes share container space with other importers' goods, and you pay only for the space you use.

When sea is the right call

• Furniture and homeware: heavy, bulky, and nobody needs it next week
• Retail stock replenishment: planned inventory does not need a plane
• Personal effects and relocations: cost per box beats speed
• Machinery and equipment: weight makes air absurd

The planning rule that matters

Sea freight rewards people who plan. Working back from 45 days: stock ordered in January for the April-to-May season sails in February. If your supplier is ready and your documents are clean, sea freight is the cheapest kilogram-shilling trade in the industry.

The Decision Framework

Work through these four questions in order:

1. Is the cargo needed within 3 weeks? If yes, fly it. Sea cannot get close. 2. Is it worth more than about £50 per kg? If yes, the freight is small relative to the value. Fly it. 3. Is it over 100 kg and non-urgent? If yes, sea almost always wins. 4. In between? Split the shipment: fly the urgent slice, sea the bulk. That is what consolidated shipping is built for.

What Both Prices Include (and What They Do Not)

Both the £8/kg air and £3.25/kg sea rates include UK collection and export handling. What they do not include is the Kenyan side: import duty, VAT, and clearance at Mombasa or Nairobi, which depend on what the goods are and what they are declared as.

That is why every Heights Cargo quote spells out the full landed picture: freight, handling, duties, clearance, and delivery, before you commit.

Get a Number Before You Decide

Use the rate calculator on this site for an instant air or sea estimate, or send us your packing list on WhatsApp and we will quote both modes side by side with the landed total, not just the freight line.