The European Union’s permission for airlines to load cargo in the passenger compartment during the pandemic will expire on July 31.
Record cargo revenue motivates investment in dedicated aircraft, cold storage and IT systems
Air cargo was a bright spot for Air New Zealand last year, thanks in large measure to government aid for flights geared toward cargo.
Reaching COVID-19 pandemic high, employment remains 2.9% below pre-pandemic December 2019
Starting an international airline during a pandemic is unbelievably challenging. Frustrated flypop has turned to cargo as an interim solution.
Delta Air Lines’ recovery from the pandemic hit a high note in the third quarter.
They’re baaaack: United Airlines is running auxiliary freighters with passenger planes again after travel demand slumped.
Most all-cargo carriers that buy used passenger planes rebuild them for heavy cargo. Easter Airlines has a quicker, cheaper idea.
Financial losses for the global airline industry were sequentially smaller in the second quarter
Cargo was the good news for Air Canada in the second quarter as the company still struggles out of a pandemic hole.
Ghost freighters — passenger planes flying without passengers — were a big part of United Airline’s pivot to cargo during the pandemic. Now they are going away.
United Airlines’ cargo division is one of the company’s biggest assets right now, with big returns again in the second quarter.
The FAA is giving airlines until the end of the year to run passenger freighters with cargo on seats and other parts of the cabin where people normally travel.
Excerpt: Most airlines survived the pandemic financial crisis, but will they survive the recovery?
Overhead bins, seat bags and seat removal are among the innovations airlines started during the COVID pandemic to move more cargo while few passengers are traveling.
LATAM Airlines will add 10 767 passenger planes with a repair shop licensed by Boeing so they can be retrofitted to carry cargo on the main deck.
Aeroméxico Cargo inaugurates twice weekly direct cargo route between Mexico City and Wuhan, China.
Hong Kong has finally made it easier for certain airlines to operate by easing some COVID restrictions for pilots. Cargo operators will benefit the most.
Silkways West Airlines is a large cargo operator out of Azerbaijan. It recently began flying to Columbus, Ohio.
Fuel was a nonfactor for airlines and cargo customers during the early months of COVID. Not anymore.
Ghost flights — passenger aircraft with no passengers, only cargo — were never a thing before the coronavirus pandemic. In the past year, airlines have operated thousands of passenger aircraft as mini-freighters. Who are the industry leaders?
We haven’t heard many airlines recently culling their cabins of seats, but Kenya Airways is now the first to do so with a Boeing 787.
United has made cargo a priority during the pandemic. The number of passenger cargo flights it operates is evidence of that.
Delta joins the caravan of airlines moving COVID vaccines. Air Canada gets ready.
Air Canada is showing itself to be one of the most innovative airlines around. It plans to start an all-cargo subsidiary on top of new initiatives in drone delivery and seatless aircraft that can carry cargo in the cabin.
Cargo never got a window view during air transport until the coronavirus pandemic led airlines to find innovative ways to mitigate the loss of passenger revenue. Alaska Airlines is joining other carriers in stowing boxes and mailbags in seats.
The A380 isn’t prized for its cargo capability, but when operated in “ghost” mode there’s a lot more room for stuff.
Delta took pains to remove seats from a large jet so it could carry more cargo — and eight weeks later permanently parked the airplane.
Delta is responding to customer willingness to pay good rates for airfreight by adding more cargo-only flights.
The airfreight market is gaining strength as trade and e-commerce grow, but the disappearance of most international air travel is hurting airlines. And the situation appears to be worsening with new waves of COVID in Europe and the U.S.
United Airlines lost more than $2 billion in the third quarter, but the cargo division did its part to stabilize finances.
Asiana and Azul are taking cargo seriously in an unprecedented year for aviation. To capture greater cargo revenue, Asiana has replaced passenger seats with a novel freight pallet system. Azul is turning regional jets into cargo planes.
American Airlines cargo and passenger flights will shift to a new mega-airport in Beijing in March. Passenger demand will dictate how long cargo-only flights continue.
21 Air is a small cargo airline that wants to expand but can’t afford new aircraft. So it’s acting as a sales agent and partnering with others to get more freight business when shippers are desperate for airlift.
At airlines, cargo is typically the junior partner to passenger service. During COVID, the roles are reversed and United Airlines is using its cargo network to support more passenger service.
Cargo is no longer the stepchild at passenger airlines. Strong cargo sales have helped keep airlines afloat as revenues plunge during the coronavirus. Will we see airlines start to buy freighters to capitalize on cargo demand?
“Look, Mom, no seats!” That’s Korean Air saying it’s flying a passenger plane with the seats removed because it can make more money putting cargo on the floor.
If you’re an airline with the name Scoot, you’ve got to move fast. The Singapore carrier did that when it transitioned to cargo flights and removing passenger seats.
United Airlines’ early commitment to quasi-freighter operations as the coronavirus crisis grew has paid off financially. The airline is ramping up cargo operations even further during the third quarter.
Several passenger airlines have proven that cargo can be lucrative business during a pandemic with little travel. American Airlines quickly built a dedicated cargo operation but is now throwing more resources at the business as market conditions improve.
Delta Air Lines is stripping — seats that is. Removing seats from passenger aircraft adds capacity for lucrative cargo.
There was a marked difference in how Canada and the U.S. reacted to the opportunity of transforming passenger aircraft into twin-deck freighters by removing the seats. One country moved very fast. The other was slow to the party.
Shippers are facing delays at Sydney Airport in Australia because cargo terminals are buried in cargo.
Don’t confuse Florianopolis with Indianapolis. It’s in Brazil and LATAM is flying freighters there from Miami.
Cathay Pacific has been flying passenger planes on cargo missions for months, but only in the last couple of weeks did it revert to pulling seats to create more cargo capacity. The new cargo capability comes with additional safety requirements and operational challenges.
Korean Air is a unicorn among passenger airlines. It made a profit in the second quarter, a remarkable feat given the depressed state of the airline industry.
The cargo divisions at Air Canada, IAG/British Airways and Air France-KLM played dominant roles for their respective airlines in the second quarter, creating cash flow. Typically, they barely register on the financial statement. What happened?
Shipping seafood, electronics or a spare part by air? It might get a window seat now on Swiss International Air Lines.
Rickenbacker Airport, a low-hassle alternative to some big airports, set cargo records in June handling COVID supplies.
It’s not an accident that United Airlines’ cargo business in the second quarter dwarfed that of Delta Air Lines and American Airlines.
United Airlines got pummeled by the coronavirus pandemic in the second quarter, losing $1.6 billion before special charges. But cargo revenue jumped because of the huge number of cargo flights it operated without passengers to worry about.
Virgin Atlantic is recapitalizing without support from the U.K. government thanks to internal and external investors and creditors.
The FAA’s ruling allowing airlines to jam more cargo in the cabin by removing passenger seats may be a pyrrhic victory. The incentive to do so may have passed.
The air cargo market is getting closer to equilibrium, but the coronavirus is a wild card that could disrupt economic activity and put a premium on air transport again.
Delta Air Lines was closed for most cargo business at Chicago O’Hare airport. Now it has a schedule for reopening.
O’Hare Airport in Chicago is facing cargo congestion and now Delta Air Lines is not accepting any more cargo at its facility until further notice.
Big cargo planes are dumping cargo faster than O’Hare, LAX and other airports can process it. That could mean a longer wait for your new favorite gadget.
Airlines continue to send out SOS distress signals. The industry’s main trade association says profit margins will drop 20% this year, but the increased reliance on air cargo is helping companies stay alive and keep employees.
Passenger planes are flying empty. Are there ghosts? It sounds kind of creepy. No need to worry. Airlines are simply putting their assets to use with cargo as their primary customer.
Airlines are looking at a multiyear road to parity with 2019, but bookings have given them confidence to start opening up networks closed by the coronavirus.
The U.S. government’s emergency aid package was only a Band-Aid for protecting jobs. Airlines promised not to have involuntary layoffs for six months, but now American Airlines is paving the way for mass layoffs.
One of the big innovations for passenger airlines during the coronavirus era is using their planes as dedicated cargo haulers. Cargo 2.0 was putting boxes in storage bins and other seats. Cargo 3.0 is cargo on seats.
Israel’s flagship carrier El Al is struggling to hold on financially during the COVID-19 pandemic and is looking to the government for a lifeline.
Shanghai Pudong Airport is getting crushed by heavy cargo volumes. Add to the mix a lot of red tape for export clearance and shipments are experiencing long delays and missed flights.
If you’re a forwarder and need more airlift to get goods around the world, you’re in luck. Airlines are listening and putting more assets to work.
Want to ride a “ghost flight” for fun? You can’t. They’re only open for freight and Delta Air Lines is flying lots of them from Asia to the U.S.
People go to the hospital to get better from coronavirus. Avianca is going to a different emergency room – bankruptcy court., so it can downsize in a safe way . It is a major Latin American carrier with a cargo division that operates its own fleet of freighters.
A perfect storm of events has created the mother-of-all cargo bottlenecks at Shanghai’s Pudong airport, where shipments sit at a standstill in crowded warehouses waiting for overwhelmed Chinese customs officers to inspect outbound PPE shipments.
Cargo in the hold, in the storage bins, under seats, on top of seats and with the seats removed. It’s all happening. And now some airlines are doing infill cargo with some seats removed.
Alaska Airlines may be late to the party when it comes to using passenger aircraft as freighters, but it wants to be an early adopter of using passenger seats for storage.
Virgin Atlantic has an extensive cargo network using passenger aircraft that are flying without passengers.
Domestic airlines want to put cargo in passenger seats or stacked on the cabin floor, as some foreign counterparts are already doing. But they first need authorization from U.S. authorities.
The idea of using passenger planes as freighters would have been considered farfetched in February since the main deck can’t be loaded with large pallets. But when there’s a pandemic and a shortage of cargo space, the logistics community gets creative and these planes are being booked at a rapid pace.
