Companies face competition that comes at them from different directions in the current environment of globalization, deregulation and the push for greater mass customization of products, which still can be differentiated from other products and services. A large number of companies have outsourced a large percentage of their non-core activities in order to concentrate on their core competencies with transportation of their goods being one of the aspects that they have outsourced. Companies are faced with shorter lead times, inaccurate forecasts, unexpected delays in production and need to seek out alternative transportation modes in order to get their goods to market on time. Transportation by air ends up being the best choice to handle requirements of time sensitivity and the transportation of high value goods.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how the air freight supply chain and network that is in place in the Jönkoping region is constructed; in addition to seeking out information in regards to the type of air freight goods being transported into and out of the region; along with the buying behavior and promotion strategies utilized in the promotion of air freight within the region of Jonkoping.

The conclusions from this thesis show that there are a number of key actors (integrators and freight forwarders) involved in the air freight network within the Jönköping region. A number of them indicated that the actors they mainly interacted with, in terms of activity links and resource ties, were limited to the airports that were outside of the Jönköping region. There were a few of the actors in terms of integrators that did interact with the Jönköping airport in a capacity that was greater than other actors. In terms of the type of air freight goods that were transported into and out of the region spare parts made up a major portion of the goods transported, followed by clothing and textiles, and other mechanical industry products. The promotion of air freight mostly performed by integrators to their customers is done in terms of emphasizing reliability, punctuality, regularity and security to their customers.