Passenger Aircraft Turn Cargo During COVID-19 Pandemic

In Mid-March, Korean Air was among the first carriers to announce it would use passenger aircraft to fulfill cargo flights on routes effected by the novel coronavirus. The airline transported agricultural and medical supplies to China and Vietnam.

American Airlines operated its first cargo-only flight since 1984 last month, with a Boeing 777-300 flying from Dallas to Frankfurt carrying medical supplies, mail for active U.S. military, telecommunications equipment and e-commerce packages. Since then, it has published a cargo-only schedule between North America, South America and Europe operating 777-300 and 787 aircraft.

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have begun flying dedicated freighter routes to Heathrow Airport in the past few weeks. In total, the airport estimates freighter traffic has increased by 500% over the past month.

Air New Zealand is another carrier that has utilized a passenger aircraft for cargo operations The airline has used one of its Boeing 777-200s for this purpose by operating cargo-only flights between Auckland and Shanghai.

Air Canada is re-configuring the cabins of three of its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to give them additional cargo capacity. The first aircraft conversion has been completed and is now in service, with the second and third aircraft soon to follow.

Lufthansa plans to remove seats from four aircraft to make room for extra cargo. The airline will team up with partner carrier Austrian Airlines to add 51 weekly cargo flights going from Europe to Asia.