:confused: Can you clarify what camel's nose you mean. You are aware that most pax carriers have always made a practice of moving freight with belly space, right?

Yes, I am very much aware. It seems like now they are filling the upper decks as well, or at least that is what I have read and I have seen pics of it. My point is they are doing whatever they can to increase their bottom line and if that means increasing freight revenue they will do it as much as they can.

Hardly. There are no upper cargo decks on pax carriers. What is any major airline doing, hand loading boxes and strapping them into seats? The major pax carriers have parked huge portions of their fleets, retired some airplanes too. And the pax carriers have no ground distribution system. You may have seen one pic of one airplane with some type of freight up top, but the pax carriers are not going to make money hauling freight. And there is no easy pax to freighter conversion. FedEx already looked into that. So maybe there are now 6 flight attendants on a 767 holding envelopes for delivery.

I'm not claiming to be an expert but anyone willing to use google can see that all the major US airlines have had a fairly robust cargo side business for years. It's certainly not new or some kind of short term reaction to the coronavirus.

So, I really don't think you understand what you're scoffing at. They're not trying to convert their pax jets to freighters. They're just using the same belly positions they've always used. I can't say if there are limited situations recently where a particular shipment was accommodated by using the main deck on a limited basis, but why not?

The bottom line is that pax airlines DO make money on cargo and always have. You could contact AA, UA, DL directly and schedule a shipment of whatever you needed to ship. That was an option last year before this craziness and it's an option tomorrow. I have no idea if their rates, schedule, last mile options are competitive but take a sec on any of their websites and you can see for yourself. They do have a ground distribution system or at least have access to one that may be provided via a third party vendor.

Belly freight on pax airliners is a big deal. As an example, when FedEx approached Emirates about selling their 777 freighters, they pointed out that their 777Fs were actually redundant. If Emirates made efficient use of the belly space available in the pax aircraft serving their cargo cities, they would be able to meet their current obligations without using dedicated freighters at all. Maybe there were more issues involved than just simply space available, but in any case, Emirates decided to hang on to their freighters for now. A government subsidized airline can probably afford to be a little less efficient.

I have no problem with the pax carriers hauling freight right now. To what degree it's competition, it was there before anyway. Anything that helps them get through this current mess is good for us all. Bankrupt airlines will not do anyone favors with regards to terms & conditions of employment, at a legacy or freight carrier.

Thank you. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Word on the strips is that the FedEx sales teams signed all the companies that were using pax belly freight to 7 year contracts once the pax traffic dried up.

I have heard that rumor as well.

It's fairly easy to guesstimate where you are in the pool dependent on you interview date. Sept, Oct, or Nov?