Northwest Cargo
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: San Diego, CA., USA
Posts: 57
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Are you trying to compare Polar vs. NWA? Your contracts averaged about a 62% load factor. Had Polar not been purchased AND had DHL not stepped up to the plate Polar would not have been around to see the retiring of the NWA freight network. Just an honest fact.
bpp
bpp
Registered User **
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: USA
Age: 49
Posts: 480
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
BPP
More or less just framing the air cargo industry in the USA. I am not fluent with NWA's load factors and my experience with Polar was more than 10 years ago. The factor they shared was operating as a heavy lift cargo airline not.. fr8't fwd'g to a forign company to an ACMI airline and the same on the backside. AA liked to fill their bellies W/INTNL cargo on their pax birds to make an extra buck. I respected POLAR's infrastructure back in the 90's.
NWA had a similar advantage that I mentioned above that FedEx has now but does not persue with large contract cargo. Infastructure...
Your load factor numbers are based on current market, during my experience with Polar in that time frame they were allways operating full aircraft. I admit my distance from the US based true cargo airlines of the past such as Seaboard then Air Tiger then Polar. I made my statement based on this.
NWA can not compete with this legacy.. Depends on what you wish to compare your load factor's with. The point I suppose I made was the advantage infrastructure gains prosperity in the freight airline, Delta has an advantage now owning NWA.
Given the fact that NWA is not operating freighters, and Delta has yet to jump into the market, they may loose ground.
I can not find NWA's cargo load factor history but am interested in the info if you can provide it.. Google was no help.
NWA had a similar advantage that I mentioned above that FedEx has now but does not persue with large contract cargo. Infastructure...
Your load factor numbers are based on current market, during my experience with Polar in that time frame they were allways operating full aircraft. I admit my distance from the US based true cargo airlines of the past such as Seaboard then Air Tiger then Polar. I made my statement based on this.
NWA can not compete with this legacy.. Depends on what you wish to compare your load factor's with. The point I suppose I made was the advantage infrastructure gains prosperity in the freight airline, Delta has an advantage now owning NWA.
Given the fact that NWA is not operating freighters, and Delta has yet to jump into the market, they may loose ground.
I can not find NWA's cargo load factor history but am interested in the info if you can provide it.. Google was no help.
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: MSP
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
NWA 747-2's & 4's
2 PAX Classics, will remain in service until just after Thanksgiving 09 ...currently sitting but filling in military charters. The remaining 200F's will be parked by the end of the year, the only freight DL will carry will be belly freight. The demise of NWA's freight operation other than the economy and 100 plus a barrel oil prices was too few shell's and lack of ground time to properly maintain them, cargo / marketing over promising and under delivering ..running the birds till they parked themselves for maintenance ... loosing the contracts, It was just greed that did that - they ran those freighters on the back of the PAX operation and infrastructure.... it was free money. DL will slowly wain away the -400's too as 777's come on line. If there are ten -400's in scheduled service by the end of 2010 ... I'd be very surprised. The economics of 2 engines and 75 to 80% of the same lift wins out .. 747's ...great birds ... .87M and over 800K .... at an empty weight of 350K ..best ride currently in the sky ...IMHO...
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: USA
Posts: 3,218
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I saw a bunch of NW 742's at Pinal Airpark, Marana, AZ, in june this year. Most likely their final resting place.
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: UTC +8
Posts: 2,626
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
OK... a lot of sweeping generalizations made here about happenings in the cargo world. Gee.... So many crystal balls on the loose, lately.
But right now it appears as if the cargo business is going gang busters, playing catch up from the 2008 global aerial transport meltdown.
Well, maybe in the USA and in western Europe; but in Asia is where cargo rules, and the authorities there are not rabid about noise regulations and ageing airframes.
Still, everywhere I go I see classics, many with shiny new liveries. Believe what you may, but the classics just don't seem to have arrived at the end of the rainbow just yet. . . .
But right now it appears as if the cargo business is going gang busters, playing catch up from the 2008 global aerial transport meltdown.
Regulations/rules will kill the 742 soon, even if fuel prices don't.
Still, everywhere I go I see classics, many with shiny new liveries. Believe what you may, but the classics just don't seem to have arrived at the end of the rainbow just yet. . . .
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: USA
Posts: 3,218
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Very true. Put another way, those NWA airplanes will go back into service bought and paid, no lease payments, no loan payments, with a massive storehouse of spare parts to keep them running. A few upgrades and they're off and trotting.
Try that with a B744 or B777.
Try that with a B744 or B777.
