KLM: 'Importers, are you winning a battle, but losing the war?'

This opaque question is the headline of an ad placed by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in The Economist magazine. The point of the ad is that importers should not just look at the transportation costs when deciding to move goods by air or sea. But also at a host of other variables, such as interest charges on transit stock and insurance fees.

To calculate the full cost for an importer, the airline developed a programme called ‘The Test of Time’ which ...