AMI pioneered the neutral, trade-only airfreight wholesale concept in 1976. Its early years were spent in developing relationships with numerous carriers, in order to provide its agent customers with a single source of capacity for all their traffic: a “one-stop- shop”. On many destinations, customers were given a choice of service levels, often based on direct or (slower) transhipment services, which were rated accordingly.

Neutrality – in other words, the deliberate distancing from any commercial dealings with shippers – has always been the core ethic of AMI, and a very strong selling point. From its beginning, when AMI first entered the market, a number of full-service freight forwarders have offered “co-load” services to smaller agents. But the underlying potential threat of an agent’s customer being approached by its supplier who was also a competitor has led many agents to give greater support to AMI.

Today, in a market which is dominated by spot-rating, AMI has strengthened its competitive position through a combination of convenience (the ability of an agent to book a large proportion of all his global traffic with a single call or internet booking, and deliver to a single drop-off point), pricing (like airlines, AMI also now spot rates for larger shipments), attractively-priced added-value services (such as receiving and trucking, and security scanning) and practical experience (for example, AMI will not support carriers or routings which – based on its vast experience – are known to present potential problems).