Will the 777 kill Cargo?

[Sam Ting Wong]

With more and more 777 entering the market, especially in the Gulf and Asia, what will the impact on Cargo operator be??


Of course there is always the high volume and CAO stuff, but will that be enough to sustain pure Cargo ops?

If I counted correctly, there are over 1600 (!!) 777 on order right now.

What is the cargo capacity of the A350??

http://leehamnews.com/2014/04/13/the-diminishing-market-for-main-deck-freighters/

Scary news..

[Cliff Secord]

I think airlines will get rid of their freighter divisions. It'll leave a just a couple dedicated cargo carriers that can handle the outsize, off airline route stuff.

[Less Hair]

It might very well kill new 747 first. With the stretched 777-9X coming there will be even more belly cargo volume available. Not to forget about the 787 and A350. Quite different from the 757/767 in terms of cargo. These guys fly twice a day to many places.

[dixi188]

B777 killed cargo flights years ago.

Back in 1997 or 1998 we (Channel Express) did a once or twice weekly flight for BA from Stansted to Tel Aviv with A300s. Then BA replaced the twice daily B757 or DC-10 pax flights with B777s and no longer needed the extra freight flights.

[NG_Kaptain]

I fly the B77F..It doesn't kill cargo flights it carries cargo. The mob I fly for has added four A330-200F's and three 777F's with one of each on order. Additionally we lease 748's from Polar and 774's from KLM (Martinair aircraft).

[L-38]

I believe that the addition of new tripies, 78's, and 380's - added to British Airway's fleet last year, coincided with BA's early termination of their GSS freight contract. . . . Coincidence? . . If anyone has ample belly freight to spare, BA has it.

[Hand Solo]

Except on the A380 routes where the belly bulks out with passenger bags with no space for cargo. Most of BAs cargo out of LAX gets trucked to LAS or SFO now to fly on the 744.

[Wireless]

I think the triple is not the big exclusive threat to main deck freight. The current threats are a few:-

Over capacity of main deck freighters.

Capacity available on bellies with increasingly used cross-airline accords being used to network share.

Modal shift. As pilots we're maybe not so aware that sea freight has comparatively upped its game far ahead of air freight and is taking a large slice of the pie back for previously exclusively air freighted cargoes.

Main deck air freight needs a radical re think if it's to succeed. The e-waybill system was long overdue. I've experienced what an end point user has to go through to import flowers from Africa. An extended time clearing customs at the airport. Trucks waiting (on demorrage) 4-5 hours whilst cargo is trans shipped from pmcs to truck-able pallets. These particular flower boxes then aren't secured/stacked/ or even put on GKN standard pallets as not a service provided by air handling at that UK airport. It was an untidy and ultimately annoying process for the customer.

Compare that to containerised transport by sea. Very quick clearance system, quick trucking network. Standardised and transferable equipment usage. Short sea sea times are reducing, logistics operators are sorting their lead time and stock holding to account for sea times given the favourable system of sea freight, negating expensive air freight.

I know pharma and heavy lift machinery is still drawn to main deck. It maybe the trend currently for freight to be sent via belly capacity on the pax network but I've no experience of how convenient/inconvenient that is for users with large tonnage who are suckered by promises of a decent trucking network to make up for less than ideal off route destinations and a cheaper incentive price. A large maindeck company who can radicalise the whole thing and draw back large tonnage is needed if main deck is to not compete with belly, but carve its own new theatre of ops. A FedEx or even Ryanair of the pallet world.