That's what I meant by "multi modal": they put most of it on ships but buy up enough air capacity to make the early deliveries. Once the ships start arriving they can abandon the air.

Hmm, I've never heard this. All the coverage a few years back was that they use air for everything, so they can scale their production operations in near-real-time as demand fluctuates. That was supposed to be Tim Cook's whole crowning achievement when he was COO. Do you have a source that shows this has changed?