FedEx B-727 load factor

[ATPMBA]

Does anyone know what the average load factor in lbs. that FedEx operates their B-727's at?

[CR2]

I always thought loadfactor was expressed as a percentage. :confused:

[mustangsally]

The above response seems a bit sharp. True "factors" are usually reflected as a percent. A 50% load factor on a passenger aircraft able to carry 160 is 80. Each passenger has a summer/winter weight. Say this weight is 180 pounds, then the average load factor by weight is 14,400 pounds.

With cargo aircraft load "factor" becomes a bit more confussed. There are no seats, just pallet locations. Be it 7 or 30+. Each location also has a load or bearing limit. If every position is load to its bearing point, chances are the aircraft is well over its published zero fuel weight.

Then with some of the overnight package/letter groups with only a third of the pallet positions half filled is profitable. Each package/letter say has a weight of half a pound or a quarter of a kilo produces a $25 charge to the customer. Yet the real aircharge to carry that package/letter, aircraft/maintenance/crew/insurance varies by the load factor by weight. Just as is does for passenger aircraft.

Airlines, passenger type, also use seat mile costs and revenue by passenger mile. The freight dogs use avaliable ton or pound miles and loads by pallet positions sold.

So back off and just answer the gentlemens question, moderator!

[ATPMBA]

I thank you MustangSally for your reply.

I’m really interested in how many pounds of air freight FedEx carries aboard their B-727’s on an average flight. The last count I have is they are still flying 94 B-727s. I believe the fuel flow is 1,300 GPH and with jet fuel costing 3.50 a gallon USD that is pretty expensive per hour. I’m trying to determine if the B-727’s are a money pit. I read in an article in Airliners magazine (Sept/Oct 2007 issue) once those airframes get up to 100,000 flight hours they marry them up to their oldest engines and then donate them to airplane mechanic schools.

To me, it seems FedEx has lost its way. They started with Falcon 20’s and now they are the biggest operator of B-727 and probably of the DC-10’s too. If I held an Air Carrier Certificate (my next big project) I would be embarrassed to be a B-727 operator. It seems like FedEx has turned into a trucking company as they hype their ground delivery, truck freight and less than truckload (LTL) services, aviation is just a side-show. For every 3-4 of their ground only trucks on the road I see one van delivering overnight stuff.

It seems like FedEx has turned into a UPS and UPS has turned into a FedEx.

[mustangsally]

ATPMBA...

Although FEDEX and the other overnight package use these older, far more costly to operate aircraft, they do have some advantages. The 727 has +/- about 50,000 lbs of payload avaliable. I truly doubt if 10% of these flight ever carry anything close to max. Why have them?

727's are cheap to buy, expensive to operate. So buy them cheap and don't operate on long haul. Use them for the hour or two flight per night and as they come up for D Checks either bite the bullet and pay or parkem. You put three or four pallets full of over night envelopes, say 15,000 lbs worth and that will generate $375,000 of cash flow, (25 x 15000.) Now say that envelope need two flights, PHL to Mem to MSP. That is about three hours of flying for, even on the expensive side say $25.000 per flight hour. If the operator wants a 5% return, (kind of high don't you think?) that still leaves better than 281K to cover the rest.

Years ago I operated 727's, (still one of my favorite aircraft) and on average we burned about 12K pounds the first hour and 9k for the next couple of hours. So in the above PHL/MEM/MSP we have on the generouse side about 42K pounds of fuel or just under 6000 gallons of jet fuel being burned. Thats $21,000 at $3.50/gallon for the nights two flights.

I know last fall UPS was operating DC-8 only on short haul domestic operations. Now that too, is an expensive mechine to operate, particularly on short segments.

[G&T ice n slice]

Umm, after 5 minutes I came up with this:
Unaudited
for period 200701 through 200706
Aircraft types B727-1CB727-100B727-200
Not corrected for nonrev ops etc

TOTAL
Departures : 25,113
Kms Flown : 21,945,024.70
Payload (Kg) : 643,365,980.20
Freight+Mail (Kg) : 326,432,659.60
LF : 50.7%
ATKM(millions) : 14,118,682,326.6
RTKM (millions) : 7,163,572,777.8
LF : 50.7%

Average
Departures : 1.0
Kms Flown : 873.9
Payload (Kg) : 25,618.8
Freight+Mail (Kg) : 12,998.6
LF : 50.7%
ATKM(millions) : 562,206.1
RTKM(millions) : 285,253.6
LF: 50.7%

Everything you need to know is out there somewhere on the wuhwuhwuh for free

Cheers, hope it helps
Edited to put the tabs & the CRLF back in
Note: Source : U.S. BTS

[skyhigh105]

atpmba, I think you have it wrong, on the face of it yes the 727s are expensive to operate in comparrisson to more modern simular freighter airliners... well hang on what modern freighter is comparable really in payload or range the closest I can think of and I am open to other suggestions is the A310 which FedEx also operate and thats still quite a difference in aeroplane know what I mean ??? I can't give you an average pound weight or average load factor for the 727's but trust me they are packed out if not in weight certainly in bulk. Their replacment the 757 will carry 50% extra payload than the 727 I forget the range differential but the main point is that if it were not economical and making money believe me FedEx would not be doing it. Despite cutbacks in certain areas of the business planes are still being bought, plus MD10 conversion project, 777's the 2 and a bit billion 757s which is a mamoth project believe me which is quite behind plan... and I believe in years to come we will also see A380s in FedEx colours too so watch this space

[countbat]

If Fedex would fly UFOs or sea ships for that matter, it will still make money. The US Postal Service stamp price for a normal envelope is 42 cents. At that price US Postal is very profitable. If you use Fedex the price is 20 and something dollars. Can you imagine how many envelopes approx 50000 lbs (a B727 -200 freight capabilities) holds?