Why do some airlines have cargo planes?

Carrying cargo can be a very lucrative market, even more so than carrying passengers; in addition, it can often add some stability to an airline's revenue stream. If passenger revenue falls, the airline will be able to fall back on their cargo division to make some cash, for example.



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Although passenger travel is usually the most profitable part of an airline's business model, freight is also a useful “dual” revenue generation tool. Aircraft have cargo storage space in the “belly” of the airframe – part of this space is used for luggage storage for passengers, and the rest is used to carry cargo.

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Hard to maintain Ultimately, the age of the type has reduced its efficiency across the board. Munoz said the following, as reported by Business Insider. You've got other jumbo jets out there that are being built and that a couple of people are flying. For us, we had dwindled down our fleet of 747s.

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Some operators fly “on demand cargo flights”, where aircraft will wait for new cargo at the airport were it had landed with the previous load. They may make “repositioning flights” (that are empty), but they do not “return.

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A minimum two-person flight crew is necessary to manage the flight deck workload and protect against the potential incapacitation of one pilot.

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Most importantly, cargo pays well. It represents between 15%-20% of the average airline's earnings. Though that may not seem a lot, once a flight covers its costs with passenger capacity, any income from cargo goes to profits.

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There have been an average of 1,200 almost empty ghost flights a month since the start of 2020, when numbers jumped at the start of the Covid pandemic. Most of these – about 80% – were to or from foreign destinations.

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That being said, most flight crew will have considerably higher tolerance for turbulence than most passengers, and crews flying freighters are considerably more likely to just ignore some light turbulence than crews flying passengers (the boxes* neither shriek, nor write nasty letters to the airline).

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Most of them end up in what's called boneyards. It's like a giant car park in the middle of woop woop where they are all lined up and stored, waiting either to be sold or broken up for parts. Boneyards such as Victorville in California has five hundred spots for old planes.

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