SELL THE BENEFITS AND SERVICES OF AIR FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION, NOT LOW PRICES!

摘要

With US low-cost carrier Air Tran announcing in December of 2007 that it was abandoning the carriage of air freight in the belly of its 737 and 717 passenger flights, with maturity in the US domestic heavyweight freight business, and with no growth in tonnage in recent years, it begs the question as to why passenger airlines, specifically US carriers, continue to sell airfreight service at below cost. The explanation often given is that the space would otherwise fly empty, and therefore as long as airfreight revenue covers the additional fuel cost, and makes a contribution to aircraft ground handling costs for transporting the freight, then airfreight carriage represents gravy to passenger carriers. Nothing could be further from the truth in today's market.