481112: Scheduled Freight Air Transportation

Under this code, the government buys air freight mostly through a few large buyers. USTRANSCOM-AQ alone shows 4,094 of the 9,655 awards and $4.97B of the $7.24B total, roughly two-thirds of the dollars. Other buyers on the list are HQ AMC/DOY, W0QF HQ SURFACE DEPL & DISTR CMD, HQ MTMC, FA4428 USTRANSCOM TCAQ, and Naval Air Systems Command. The notice does not say how each buyer chose its vendors, and it does not explain the set-aside codes. Most awards, 6,738, are tagged NONE, and 2,838 have no value recorded. Only 79 carry the SBA, SBP, or HZC codes.

The award sizes and competition suggest a market that is hard to enter without a track record. The median award is $21.3K, which is small next to the $7.24B total, so a few very large awards carry most of the money. Only 84 distinct vendors appear across 24 years of awards. The notice does not state how many offers each award drew, so the level of competition cannot be measured from this data. A firm weighing this code should look at whether its services fit the lanes and buyers above and what those buyers' past requirements look like.

Over the next year, the main signal is the five contracts worth $2.55M that end within 12 months. The notice does not say whether those contracts will be recompeted, extended, or moved to another buyer. It also shows zero active notices right now, so there is no open solicitation to respond to in this snapshot. Firms should watch for new notices from the top buyers and check whether any of the five expiring contracts appear again in future postings.