Flexport’s Apple Air Freight Deal Has Burned Through Cash

For Flexport, a logistics company billing itself as the future of trade, it’s hard to think of a more impressive client than Apple, the poster child of globalization. Since late 2022, the iPhone maker has been using Flexport’s air freight services to fly products from some of its factories in Asia to U.S. cities for distribution to customers, according to two people familiar with Flexport’s business.

While that previously unreported contract was a feather in the cap for Flexport, it has also proved to be a major drag on the company’s bottom line. Flexport was losing at least $2 million per month on its Apple air freight last year, the two people said. The companies have been negotiating whether to renew the annual contract, which expires in March, one of the people said.