7 airlines with the most cargo-only flights

• Jeff Lee
• September 15, 2020
• Aircraft, Capacity & Demand, Carriers, Conversions, Editorial, Equipment, Logistics, News, Strategy

Faced with shrinking route networks, airlines began using passenger widebody passenger aircraft solely to transport cargo in March. Now, almost six months later, these operations are not only ongoing at many of the world’s major airlines, but represent a financial lifeline against the slow recovery of the passenger market. Tens of thousands of cargo-only flights […]

Top 25 carrier rankings scrambled by fleet changes

• Charles Kauffman and Jeff Lee
• August 12, 2020
• Aircraft, Capacity & Demand, Carriers, Editorial, Equipment, Features, Freighter Fleet Analysis, Logistics, News, Production Freighters, Strategy, Widebody Conversions

While the mix of carriers in the top-five bracket remained the same in 2019, the order in which they are ranked looks very different compared to a year ago, thanks to changes to their freighter fleets.  In our list of Top 25 Carriers by total FTKs, the top five leaders collectively added a net of twenty-three freighters in 2019. The […]

10 carriers where cargo contributes the most

• Charles Kauffman and Jeff Lee
• June 17, 2020
• Aircraft, Capacity & Demand, Carriers, Editorial, Logistics, News, Production Freighters, Strategy, Widebody Conversions

Between 2018 and 2019, the contribution of cargo to a combination carrier’s top line decreased almost unanimously as the airfreight market entered cool-down mode after a multi-year growth streak. With the exception of Qatar Airways, all of the top-ten carriers by cargo revenue contribution saw cargo play a reduced or unchanged role in 2019. With […]

April brings more instability to Asia-Pacific cargo traffic

• Caryn Livingston
• May 18, 2020
• Capacity & Demand

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has managed to destabilize most of the global aviation market, even as disrupted supply chains have boosted airfreight rates to unprecedented highs. While in some cases that has led to startling increases in air cargo revenue in April and during the first quarter of 2020, the massive decrease in cargo capacity […]

Lufthansa Technik nabs customer for A380 freighter-lite

• Charles Kauffman and Jeff Lee
• May 5, 2020
• Aircraft, All Posts, Editorial, Equipment, Strategy, Widebody Conversions

Lufthansa Technik has secured a contract to reconfigure an A380 as an “auxiliary freighter” capable of transporting cargo on its passenger decks. The experiment, prompted by the ongoing capacity crunch induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, will yield an aircraft that is the closest to an A380F the world has ever seen.  While Lufthansa Technik has […]

130+ passenger aircraft added to ‘COVID-19 freighter fleet’

• Charles Kauffman and Jeff Lee
• March 31, 2020
• Aircraft, Capacity & Demand, Carriers, Equipment, Exclusive, Freighter Fleet Analysis, Logistics, News, Strategy

As borders are severely restricted and passenger flights are cancelled around the world because of the COVID-19 pandemic, at least forty airlines have operated some 135 empty passenger aircraft for the sole purpose of carrying cargo, analysis by Cargo Facts has found. With bellyholds traditionally moving 40%-80% of the cargo on a given lane, the […]

Qantas, KLM fly passenger aircraft as freighters, Lufthansa and IAG may follow

• Jeff Lee
• March 18, 2020
• Aircraft, Capacity & Demand, Carriers, Equipment, News, Production Freighters, Strategy, Widebody Conversions

[Note: Qantas has now decided to suspend all international passenger flying from the end of March until at least May 31, 2020.] As borders are severely restricted and passenger flights are cancelled around the world because of the COVID-19 pandemic, more airlines are beginning to operate empty passenger aircraft for the sole purpose of carrying […]

Delta to operate passenger planes as freighters for charters

• Jeff Lee
• March 16, 2020
• Aircraft, Capacity & Demand, Carriers, News, Strategy

Delta Air Lines will join the list of airlines operating passenger aircraft as freighters. The carrier’s entire trans-Atlantic belly network has been nearly eliminated as a result of the U.S. travel ban on foreign nationals from the Schengen Area, the U.K. and Ireland. Delta Cargo has begun offering charter flights in response to customer demand, […]