Cargo airline

Cargolux Boeing 747-400F

Cargo airlines (or airfreight carriers, and derivatives of these names) are airlines mainly dedicated to the transport of cargo by air. Some cargo airlines are divisions or subsidiaries of larger passenger airlines.

Logistics

Air transport is a component of many international logistics networks, managing and controlling the flow of goods, energy, information and other resources like products, services, and people, from the source of production to the marketplace. Logistics involves the geographical repositioning of raw materials, work in process, and finished inventories.[1]

Aircraft used

FedEx Express DC-10

Larger cargo airlines tend to use new or recently built aircraft to carry their freight, but many use older aircraft, like the Boeing 707, Boeing 727, Douglas DC-8, DC-10, MD-11, Boeing 747, Airbus A300, and the Ilyushin Il-76. Examples of the 60-year-old Douglas DC-3 are still flying around the world carrying cargo (as well as passengers). Short range turboprop airliners such as the An-12, An-26, Fokker Friendship, and British Aerospace ATP are being modified to accept standard air freight pallets to extend their working lives. This normally involves the replacement of glazed windows with opaque panels, the strengthening of the cabin floor and insertion of a broad top-hinged door in one side of the fuselage.

The An-225, world's largest aircraft, also used by Antonov Airlines, a Ukrainian cargo airline.

Antonov An-225 Mriya and Antonov An-124 are the world's largest aircraft, used for transporting large shipments and oversized cargos.[2][3]

Usage of large military airplanes for commercial purposes, pioneered by Ukraine's Antonov Airlines in the 1990s, has allowed new types of cargo in aerial transportation.

In the past, some cargo airlines would carry a few passengers from time to time on flights, and UPS Airlines once unsuccessfully tried a passenger charter airline division. However, cargo planes in the United States are forbidden from carrying non-employee passengers.[4]

Top 10 cargo airlines

By freight tonne-kilometres flown (millions):[5]

Rank Airline 2015
1 United States FedEx Express 16,020
2 United Arab Emirates Emirates SkyCargo 11,240
3 United States UPS Airlines 10,936
4 Hong Kong Cathay Pacific Cargo 9,464
5 South Korea Korean Air Cargo 8,079
6 Germany Lufthansa Cargo 7,054
7 Singapore Singapore Airlines Cargo 6,019
8 Qatar Qatar Airways Cargo 5,997
9 Luxembourg Cargolux 5,753
10 Taiwan China Airlines Cargo 5,266

All-cargo

European Air Transport (EAT) Airbus A300B4F. EAT is a subsidiary of DHL Aviation, one of the world's largest cargo airline companies.
UPS Worldport Air Hub at Louisville International Airport

Some of the largest all-cargo carriers are:[6]

All-cargo subsidiary

Air India Cargo Airbus A310 plane.
Emirates Sky Cargo Boeing 777F freighter arrives London Heathrow Airport (2015)
Loading a Singapore Airlines Cargo Boeing 747 from the front

Freight divisions of passenger airlines operating their own or leased freighter aircraft, some have shut down or merged with others.[6]

Freight divisions without fleet using passenger aircraft belly hold or having other cargo airlines fly on their behalf, some of these previously had freighters:

These carriers operate freighter aircraft but do not have a cargo division:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bartsch, Butsri (24 May 2013). "Air freight - it could not be faster!". BB Handel. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
  2. ↑ "Chapman Freeborn charters first AN-225 to South America". Chapman Freeborn Airchartering.
  3. ↑ "Argentina's First Satellite Delivered on AN-124 Cargo Charter". Chapman Freeborn Airchartering.
  4. ↑ "Passengers And Crew On Cargo Aircraft" (PDF). Federal Aviation Administration. 21 January 2004. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
  5. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-12-15. Retrieved 2012-12-15.
  6. 1 2 "World's 50 largest air cargo carriers in 2014: FedEx leading the way". Air Cargo News. 15 September 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
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