air cargo

FedEx DC-10

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

Logistics

Air transport or rather airfreight is a component of the logistics, too. However, Logistics is the art and science of 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. It is difficult or nearly impossible to accomplish any international trading, global export/import processes, international repositioning of raw materials/products and manufacturing without a professional logistical support. It involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging. The operating responsibility of logistics is the geographical repositioning of raw materials, work in process, and finished inventories where required at the lowest cost possible.

Aircraft used

China Airlines Cargo

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, B 747#747-200F, 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 now 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.

A number of cargo airlines carry a few passengers from time to time on their flights, and UPS once unsuccessfully tried a passenger charter airline division.

Notable cargo airlines

All-cargo

First Air Hercules used for cargo in the Canadian Arctic

• ABX Air
• Airnet Express
• Air Hong Kong
• American International Airways/Kalitta
• Atlas Air
• Australian Air Express
• Blue Dart Aviation
• Burlington Air Express
• Cargo 360
• Cargojet Airways
• Cargolux
• Challenger Air Cargo
• DAS Air Cargo
• DHL Aviation
• Emerald Air
• Emery Worldwide
• Evergreen International Airlines
• FedEx
• Fine Air
• First Flight
• Flying Tiger Line
• Gemini Air Cargo
• Heavylift Cargo Airlines
• Jade Cargo International
• Kalitta Air
• Kelowna Flightcraft (on behalf of Purolator)
• Kitty Hawk Aircargo
• Martinair

Murray Air (National Air Cargo Group)

• LAN Cargo
• Polar Air Cargo
• Seaboard World Airlines
• Southern Air
• Tampa Cargo
• TCS Courier
• TNT
• Tol Air
• Transmile Air Services
• UPS
• Varig Log

All-cargo subsidiary

• Aeromexpress
• Air India
• Air France Cargo
• Alaska Air Cargo
• Avianca Cargo
• British Airways World Cargo
• China Cargo Airlines
• Delta Cargo-Delta operated hercules airplanes on cargo only routes during the 1970s
• Emirates SkyCargo
• KLM Cargo
• LAN Cargo
• Lufthansa Cargo
• MASkargo
• Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA, an associate of ANA)
• Northwest Cargo
• Pan Am Cargo
• SAS Cargo Group
• Singapore Airlines Cargo
• Swiss WorldCargo
• World Airways Cargo
• Qatar Airways Cargo

Non-separate entity

• Cathay Pacific
• China Airlines
• Japan Airlines (JALCARGO)

World's largest freight carriers by scheduled freight tonne-kilometres flown

2004 total scheduled freight tonne-kilometres flown

1. Federal Express 14.579 million
2. Korean Air 8.264 million
3. Lufthansa Cargo 8.040 million
4. United Parcel Service 7.353 million
5. Singapore Airlines Cargo 7.143 million
6. Cathay Pacific 5.876 million
7. China Airlines 5.642 million
8. Eva Airways 5.477 million
9. Air France 5.388 million
10. Japan Airlines 4.924 million

2004 international scheduled freight tonne-kilometres flown

1. Korean Air 8.164 million
2. Lufthansa Cargo 8.028 million
3. Singapore Airlines Cargo 7.143 million
4. Cathay Pacific 5.876 million
5. China Airlines 5.642 million
6. Federal Express 5.595 million
7. Eva Airways 5.477 million
8. Air France 5.384 million
9. British Airways 4.771 million
10. Cargolux 4.670 million

2004 domestic scheduled freight tonne-kilometres flown

1. Federal Express 8.984 million
2. United Parcel Service 4.260 million
3. Northwest Airlines 0.949 million
4. China Southern Airlines 0.860 million
5. American Airlines 0.576 million
6. Delta Air Lines 0.557 million
7. Air China 0.531 million
8. United Airlines 0.525 million
9. Cargojet Airways 0.517 million
10. China Eastern Airlines 0.458 million

Source for 2004 data: International Air Transport Association. Note that it only includes data for member airlines.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Cargo airline

• Directory of Air Cargo Operators and Brokers

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