Figure ten hours to load and ten hours to unload a 777 thru pax doors. Sounds insane.

Una hora. RamPamPam Loaders. LLC https://youtu.be/_wE3hDN06Qg

Watching rampers across on the international ramp hand load a 747 in RFD this week. Asked one of our ramp people that question, said “8 hours plus”. Wasn’t sure cause they were still at it after he left for the day after his 8 hour shift.

EK and SQ have been doing it successfully for a year now. As good as a true freighter? = no, but certainly not a ten hour load time when done properly:

Attachment 6403

That’s not the typical cargo that goes onto freighters. Those are all the same size boxes that are easy to stack and secure. A typical freighter has cargo loads of every shape and size you can imagine that won’t go together like that.

Additionally…the volume in that picture is nowhere near what’s required to make most operations carrying general cargo economically viable.

Yes, but thankfully there's more cargo in that plane than what is in that picture. Historically, belly cargo would usually bring a passenger wide-body close to breaking even on an overseas flight. Now that FTKs are higher the belly cargo is sometimes enough to turn a small profit, especially with these supply chain fiascos. The main deck stuff, even if it is a lighter load, is extra profit. United is not loading the main decks and they're still bringing decent money with their makeshift cargo operation right now, enough so that they actually increased their cargo operation for the tail end of this year.