Cargo airlines are airlines mainly dedicated to the transport of cargo by air.

Cargo airlines (or air freight 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. In 2018, airline cargo traffic represented 262,333 million tonne-kilometres with a 49.3% load factor: 52.1% for dedicated cargo operations, and 47.9% within mixed operations (belly freight of passenger airliners). Dedicated cargo airlines such as FedEx, UPS, and DHL, operate a fleet of cargo aircraft and handle the entire freight transportation process. Many airlines, like Emirates and Qatar Airways, have dedicated cargo divisions that operate their own fleet of cargo aircraft alongside their passenger operations. During the pandemic, airlines like American Airlines, Air Canada, and Delta Air Lines utilized their passenger planes, removing seats to create space for cargo, to meet the demand for freight transport.

Pilots
A higher proportion of cargo flights are red-eye (overnight flights) than passenger flights. Compared to passenger airline pilots, cargo pilots are paid less but do not have to be responsible for passengers. Cargo pilots also have better job security due to air freight demand being more stable, as opposed to passenger airlines which often furlough their pilots in response to falling passenger demand.

Freight rates

Air freight offers the fastest way to move cargo across long distances. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, adjusted cargo capacity fell by 4.4% in February while air cargo demand also fell by 9.1%, but the near-halt in passenger traffic cut capacity even deeper as half of global air cargo is carried in passenger jets’ bellies. Air freight rates rose as a consequence, from $0.80 per kg for transatlantic cargoes to $2.50-4 per kg, enticing passenger airlines to operate cargo-only flights through the use of preighters, while cargo airlines bring back into service fuel-guzzling stored aircraft, helped by falling oil prices.

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.

Aircraft used

Larger cargo airlines tend to use new or recently built aircraft to carry their freight. Current passenger aircraft such as the Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 offer freighter variants either from new the factory or as a conversion. Compared to the passenger variant, the freighter has a supernumerary area, which includes four business-class seats forward of the rigid cargo barrier, full main deck access, bunks, and a galley. Passenger planes converted to freighters have their windows plugged, passenger doors deactivated, fuselage and floor reinforced, and a main-deck cargo door installed.

Many cargo airlines still utilize older aircraft, including those no longer suited for passenger service, like the Boeing 727, Douglas DC-8, McDonnell Douglas DC-10, McDonnell Douglas MD-11, Airbus A300, and the Ilyushin Il-76. Examples of the 80+-year-old Douglas DC-3 are still flying around the world carrying cargo (as well as passengers). Short range turboprop airliners such as the Antonov An-12, Antonov 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.

Passenger and Cargo

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.

Passenger airlines regularly use their largest passenger aircraft like the Boeing 777-300ER to earn additional revenue beyond passengers on a scheduled flight, by transporting a limited amount of cargo alongside passengers’ luggage underneath the passenger cabin.