Planewatcher

Ameriflight will always be Ameriflight. Back in the 80's early 90's It was all about Banks and flying checks. That was AMF's Cash Crop flying across the country coast to coast. Someone back then said hey wait a min we can do small feeder also. Now that's where there cash crop is. Revenue has totally done a 180 as far as Feeder/banks. By the end of the year you will hardly see any checks as mandated by law. The night routes and freight have deceased substantially. As opposed to DHL/FDX/UPS routes. AMF then ventured in to the Radioactive Material flying (7060 ops)

It seems as soon as AMF loses a route they gain a route Somewhere else.

Airnet's Story was Banks and only banks. They bet the farm on banks. A few years ago they started flying stuff for Nordian (a Radioactive producer) I think they still hold the contract today. The cost to operate a Lear as compared to a metro or a 99 is a no brainier. But Lear's were all Airnet has for long haul trips.

Where AMF succeeds is their reliability. If something breaks they were there with a replacement still making service. I cant say that about the other company's. I have seen other company's charter out there route to AMF because they had no way of recovering.

NoBeta

Thanks for the input everyone!

With 121 ops slashing hours across the board will that help 135 on demand cargo operators since less 121 ops will have cargo in their bellies???

JPilot77

Why is it that people think flying cargo is a bullet proof fall back? "I just got laid off from my job at the regionals so I'm going to go fly cargo" When the industry is hurting typically freight and cargo operators have been hurting long before the airlines. Look at most on demand operators right now, they're hanging on by threads and the business is very week to week..

own nav

Maybe, if they carry USPS in particular.

freightdog

Hurting long before the airlines? Cargo is always usually the last part of the industry that is affected in a recession. It's almost always 1.) Airlines 2.) Charter 3.) Fractionals 4.) Cargo
No matter if the economy is in a slump or on the rise, in times of peace or war, people will always need to send boxes.

own nav

Unless you work for Airborne Express, Astar, Emery, Kittyhawk, Expressone, USAjet....

Don't kid yourself that there aren't a few part 135 operators on the brink of extinction either.

JPilot77

People always need to send boxes, and it's cheaper on a truck, own nav just touched the tip of the iceberg of freight operators that are struggling, I started flying freight 5 years ago and the industry was in a lot rougher shape than the airlines at that point, all the regionals were hiring like mad, pilots at my old job at that time were flying maybe 25 hours a month, freight hasn't been bounced back since.

FalconDrvr

GrandAire, Alliance, Cherry, Ameristar...

own nav

It's not just about boxes and trucks either. Look at how much check hauling business has been lost to electronic imaging. Part 135 companies have taken a big hit with this.

Oldog

A lot of it is contract flying that involves repetitive trips over the same route, four or five days a week -- often out from a hub in the morning to deliver cargo to a smaller community that doesn't have enough traffic to support B-757 service, and back to the hub that night. Customers like UPS, FedEx, DHL, various courier companies, some financial institutions, etc., pay the bill.