Freight aircraft economics
 

I posted this question a while back on a different PP forum, and the answers were not that compelling.

If BA etc are selling off their 757s, and they are being picked up by DHLs etc that use their aircraft pretty intensively, what are the economics in play? How come it is no longer economic for use as a passenger aircraft, but it is worth investing in a conversion for freight use. I would have thought that a DHL uses its aircraft just as intensively as BA.

Thanks

very, very, very approximately

BA will have had +/- 3,500 hours/yr
DHL will probably get +/- 1,300 hours/yr

Thank you. So that begs another question - why don't the likes of DHL simply have less aircraft and use them more intensively. Surely their "schedule" is as predictable as a passenger airline

jjfluk
 

The vast majority of the freight flown by DHL, UPS, TNT etc goes at night. This fits in with the just-in-time principle followed by most of manufacturing industry.

DHL had a handful of daytime schedules a good few years ago but they didn't last too long. I guess in part that was due to staffing up for out-of-hours operations (not economic), crew FTL problems and difficulty with slots.

Most freight aircraft spend all of the daytime hours parked up, often in the less attractive parts of the airport!!

My understanding is that Cargo flights - mainly short haul- are far more restricted schedule wise since they move stuff overnight for deliveries at offices during working hours.

So the flight hours accumulated by cargo aircraft are less since they can do less flights per day than pax aircraft.

Rwy in Sight

again, very, very, very appoximately

Latest collection time from shipper : 18:00
trucked to sub-hub sorting centre & arrive : 19:00
truck from sub-hub to air hub & arrive : 22:00
loaded & flown out : 23:00 (air sector)
arrive at super-hub : 01:00
sorting etc & depart again for air hub : 02:30 (air sector)
arrive air hub : 04:30
sorting etc & sent on to sub-hub 05:30
arrive sub-hub : 08:30
sorted sent on to receiver : 09:30

so in the whole process there are only 2 x 2 hour air sectors (average)
monday night through friday night

& there isn't any daytime air activity

Many thanks for the complete answers. So, the capital/leasing cost of the aircraft is relatively more important than for pax fleets, and the higher maintenance costs are less important, given that they are putting on less hours/year. Plus, I guess, they have daytime to perform minor maintenance.

DHL A300 operation in Europe, average sector time about 1 hour and less than 1000 hours a year. Crew member about 250-300 hrs. per year.

again approximately to the power 3

a B757 brand new would be what 75 millions
a straight-line write down over 10 years = 7.5 millions/year
for approx 35,000 hours
so +/- 2,150/hour

an old B757 including conversion is (say) 10 millions
a straight-line write down over 10 years = 1 millions/year
for approx 13000 hours
is +/- 750/hr

((mental arith is not in my limited assortment of abilities))

Plus limited use means relatively lower maintainance costs (takes a long time to get to he various checks)