Vokes55
Sorry but that argument still doesn’t stack up.
Air Cargo News puts the current average air cargo rates at $3.30/kg (in a world where cargo yields are higher than normal) While a quick online search has Singapore-UK being offered at between $2-$4/kg. So let’s take the top end at $4/kg for cargo.
You need to offload a passenger to uplift an extra 100kg of “very profitable” freight.
Cost of passenger offload = EU261 compensation (€600)+ Hotel+Subsistence+Potential loss of not being able to sell the seat the next day
At current rate €600 is a little over $700, plus let’s say $150 for hotel and subsistence claims. Can’t quantify the loss of revenue for a possible last minute seat sale on the next flight. But absolute minimum cost of passenger offload $850.
Revenue from freight = $400
Doesn’t make much sense from a revenue perspective to cost yourself $850 to “earn” $400
And in my experience airlines don’t offload passenger baggage for cargo either, as that quickly gets expensive. Luggage has to be forwarded on to final destination, possibly involving connecting flights and then couriered to home address or hotel. Plus passengers are normally offered expenses to buy some replacement items.
When my job has involved dealing with cargo in an operational capacity, on high demand cargo routes, there was an agreed minimum cargo uplift offered by the airline in the freight contract. When there was additional demand we would get a phone call/email/SITA on the day of departure from cargo, once the passenger figures were known and we could calculate a real world flight plan, to ask for how much additional cargo we could accept. And the answer was almost always yes with an increased figure for them to work to.
I don’t recall us often not being able to accept the agreed minimum cargo uplift, except in extreme weather contains. Was rare.
This again looks like another case of Norwegian getting it wrong. They offered more cargo capacity than the aircraft would routinely carry based on performance and en-route restrictions, and lost the contract as a result of regularly not being able to accept the agreed freight uplifts. The idea of offloading passengers and baggage to try and save a flawed freight contract would have been a commercial non-starter.