The Role of Freighter Aircraft in a Full-Service Network Airline Air Freight Services: The Case of Qantas Freight

Abstract

<p>The dedicated all-cargo aircraft market is vital to the global economy. Freighter aircraft now carry around 56 per cent of world air cargo traffic. Using an in-depth case study research design, this study examined the Qantas Freight Boeing B747-400 and B767-300 freighter aircraft route network design during the 2017/2018 Northern Winter Flight schedule period, which was in effect from the 29th October 2017 to March 24th, 2018. The qualitative data were examined by document analysis. The study found that Qantas Freight deploy their leased B747-400 freighter aircraft on a route network that originates in Sydney and incorporates key markets in Thailand and China with major markets in the United States. The Boeing B767-300 freighter aircraft operated 5 services per week on a Sydney/Auckland/Christchurch/Sydney routing as a well as a weekly Sydney/Hong Kong/Sydney service. The Boeing B747-400 freighter services could generate 114,755,020 available freight tonne kilometres (AFTKs) over the schedule period. The Boeing B767-300 freighter aircraft could generate 46,974,1440 AFTKs. The Qantas Freight route network and freighter fleet is underpinned by Australia’s liberalized freighter aircraft policy, the “Open Skies” agreement between Australia and China – which permits the onward carriage of cargo traffic across the trans-Pacific – and the liberalized “open skies” agreement with New Zealand.</p>

A Strategic Analysis of Cargolux Airlines International Position in the Global Air Cargo Supply Chain Using Porter’s Five Forces Model

“…Air cargo capacity is also offered by dedicated all-cargo carriers, such as Cargolux International Airlines and Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA), as well as by the integrators, such as DHL Express, FedEx, and United Parcel Service (UPS) [2]. All-cargo services are operated by dedicated freighter aircraft, where all the available capacity is devoted to the transportation of air cargo [3][4][5]. A freighter aircraft is an aircraft that has been expressly designed for the carriage of air cargo or one which has been converted from a passenger configuration to a freighter aircraft and is subsequently used to transport air cargo, express, and so forth, rather than passengers [6].…”