American’s Tyler to discuss cargo-only ops and more at CFS

Cargo Facts is pleased to announce that Jessica Tyler, president of cargo and vice president of airport excellence of American Airlines, has joined the Cargo Facts Symposium 2020 speaker faculty.

Tyler will join other distinguished industry peers on a virtual roundtable session titled, “Refiling air cargo’s flight plan: Growth opportunities and obstacles in airfreight,” on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 11:45 a.m. EST.

Despite not having a single dedicated freighter in its fleet, American has operated more than 2,000 cargo-only flights with its passenger 777s and 787s since the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed passenger aviation demand.

 See also: Cargo Facts’ Passenger Freighter Database

Cargo Facts Symposium is the leading airfreight conference, and it remains vitally crucial to the industry during the COVID-19 crisis. This year’s virtual event runs Oct. 27-28 on a digital platform that allows for panels, live discussion and Q&A, as well as one-on-one networking. More information, along with the complete agenda, is available here, on the conference website.

With freight now moving on nearly every American-operated aircraft, the crisis has been an opportunity for the broader airline to become much more closely acquainted with cargo. “This has allowed us to revisit the conversation with all of our network planning teams, our operational teams, even crew scheduling and things that you would never think would need to be thought of a little bit differently,” Tyler said.

While American isn’t rushing to jump into dedicated freighters just yet, Tyler believes cargo-only flying will continue as long as it makes economic sense. “We continually revisit the freighter question periodically through the years,” she said. “Whether we’re going to have an American Airlines freighter, with a red, white and blue striped tail out there,” that remains to be seen.

See also: 7 airlines with the most cargo-only flights

Tyler was appointed to her current role in June 2020, and was previously managing director of strategy and development for the cargo team.

In 2019, American Airlines reported cargo revenue of $863 million.