The world's freighter fleet has consistently grown over the last 20 years to accommodate the expansion of global trade. Tables 1 and 2 show the development of the narrowbody and widebody freighter fleets over the previous two decades. According to research carried out by Structural Integrity Engineering, approximately 75% of the world's total (domestic and international) revenue freight tonne-kilometers (FTKs) are flown by airlines which have passenger services as their main focus. Such carriers are often known as combination carriers. While many of the combination carriers operate freighter aircraft, cargo is predominantly transported in the cargo holds of wide bodies or on the main deck of combi configured aircraft. Approximately 50% of all the FTKs are flown in the belly compartment of passenger aircraft, a further 25% are performed by combination carriers using freighter aircraft and, to a much lesser degree, combi aircraft (mostly 747s) according to SIE. The balance of the world's airfreight traffic is handled by major all-cargo airlines such as Cargolux and Nippon Cargo and integrated express operators such as DHL and FedEx.
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