ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the airlines of the non-integrated air cargo market. On international services, the split between freight tonne kilometres on board all-cargo and passenger flights is roughly 50:50. Using their mixed fleet of freighters and passenger aircraft, combination carriers account for nearly 60% of international air freight, roughly half of that in the lower deck of their passenger aircraft and the other half on board their freighter fleet. Belly cargo on passenger aircraft is mainly carried on board wide-body aircraft on long-haul routes, due to space and weight constraints of narrow-body aircraft, plus cheap competition by surface transportation on short routes. In the UK, over 80% of all long-haul cargo was carried on passenger flights in 2006, in contrast to short-/medium-haul where passenger services carried only 20% of the tonnage. Almost all low-cost carriers have up to now operated on short-/medium-haul routes with narrow-bodied aircraft such as the B737-800 or A319/A320.
