Cargo is becoming a sexier line of business for passenger carriers.
Air cargo throughput is expected to continue its upward trend after a strong first-half showing, IATA said.
Cargo was the good news for Air Canada in the second quarter as the company still struggles out of a pandemic hole.
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.
Cargo has been the airline industry’s all-star performer since the pandemic began. Profits are soaring, but it’s not enough to overcome huge losses from the travel side.
United performed worse in the first quarter than some analysts expected, but the consumer mood has shifted as the economy reopens and United says it can get to breakeven this year on a pretax basis.
One more quarter taking its pandemic lumps and then Delta says it will steer out of the COVID vortex and start making more money than it loses.
Gloom and doom could soon turn to sunny skies for U.S. airlines. It’s another story for international carriers, but everyone is managing heavy debt loads from COVID. Carriers will be more selective about what routes they fly in the future.
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?
Air cargo is a good news, bad news story this year. Shipment volumes are at pre-crisis levels. But cargo is joined at the hip with passenger airlines, which are cutting more flights and struggling to survive.
