Substituting cargo for passengers becomes mainstream business for airlines

Demand for reused passenger planes has been so high that Lufthansa Airlines says it will even remove the seats of four planes to make room for more cargo. Previously, Lufthansa said it is operating 25 special flights this week with passenger planes dedicated exclusively to cargo. An additional 60 cargo flights with passenger planes are planned for next week.

Starting Monday, Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines will add 35 weekly flights with passenger planes operating between Europe and Asia. The schedule includes two daily connections from Frankfurt to Shanghai and one daily connection to Beijing.

The planes have around 30 tons of cargo capacity. Austrian Airlines plans to offer 16 flights a week from Vienna, with Shanghai in service eight times a week, Beijing five times, Penang, Malaysia twice, and Xiamen, China once a week.

American Airlines announced Friday that it is expanding cargo-only operations to provide more than 5.5 million pounds of capacity to transport critical goods each week between the US. USA And Europe, Asia and Latin America.

American said it also plans to add a freight service only to Shanghai and Seoul by the end of the month. The flights will carry personal protective equipment and pharmaceuticals, automotive components, fresh fruits and vegetables, mail and electronic products.

Air Canada said on Friday that it is adding seven dedicated cargo flights per week to and from Shanghai on a scheduled basis, starting Friday.

Some airlines, such as Delta, Cathay Pacific, El Al, and American, began offering their planes to logistics companies and large shippers as cargo freight and were soon joined by many of their competitors.

Southwest Airlines is renting aircraft to cargo users even though its fleet consists of narrow-bodied Boeing 737s that cannot fit in giant containers or flat shelves. And Air Canada is even offering its small regional jets to carry cargo to rural areas and tribal communities.