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United Airlines cargo planes to share space again with passengers

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United Airlines is moving from cargo-only flights to shared space with passengers on a couple key international routes, while also adding non-stop service Shanghai-San Francisco. (www.freightwaves.com) More...

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sparkie624
sparkie624 3
Sounds like a Convee!(Not sure if I spelled it right... Not a new idea... Used to be done in the far north years ago.
ekulisch
Eric Kulisch 4
No, not a combi in that sense. No cargo on the main deck with people separated by a wall. Cargo just below, like normal. . . But combis are interesting aircraft.
aurodoc
aurodoc 9
Lufthansa flew a 747 combi from SFO to FRA. Purser took me in the back and there were a couple of cars, pallets and 6 horses going to the Middle East

ekulisch
Eric Kulisch 3
Wow, that's cool
sparkie624
sparkie624 4
I knew I had that spelling wrong.... If things continue... they may just do that.... But carrying cargo with passengers is really nothing new... It is just that now, with less passengers and subsequent less baggage they have a lot more room.
ekulisch
Eric Kulisch 3
Yes, but United and others were operating planes only for cargo during COVID. No passengers, so this news is basically going back to normal, transitioning from cargo-only to dual carriage.
jbsimms
James Simms 1
South African Airways Flight 295 incident in November 1987 pretty much did in Combi’s, especially after the FAA required new on board fire suppression equipment. Last one sold was 2002. I ‘get it’ that some places like the Arctic area it’s the only way to carry passengers & cargo.

From Wiki: “...the Federal Aviation Administration introduced new regulations in 1993 specifying that manual fire fighting must not be the primary means of fire suppression in the cargo compartment of the main deck. Complying with these new standards required weight increases, which made the 747 Combi no longer viable. Nevertheless, the Combi remained in the 747 product line up until 2002, when the last 747-400 Combi was delivered to KLM.“
ekulisch
Eric Kulisch 1
I recently wrote about a new type of combi - https://www.freightwaves.com/news/the-flying-flexible-people-freighter-meet-the-flexcombi
madrockradio
James Cross 1
Great read, thanks for sharing! I noticed one thing though in your article - "Loose cargo and baggage go in the lower hold, which is too small in narrow-body planes for containers"

Don't the 757 and A320 take containers in the hold?
kptnsky
mikey mikey 1
James - airlines use containers for baggage, however they are smaller and narrower than the cargo pallets packed for freighter aircraft. The lower hold on the smaller aircraft cannot accommodate those much-larger pallets.
sparkie624
sparkie624 1
Very interesting.. Thanks for sharing.
snicol
snicol 2
Still done in the not-so-far-north-from-here-wait-these-plans-actually-fly-south-of-me

https://canadiannorth.com/about/our-fleet/
yr2012
matt jensen 1
Wien Air used 200s to fly combi freight ANC-DLG on daily runs.
iflyrjs
It's about time
Baywooff
James Bruton 2
KLM used to fly 747 combi's daily from Houston to Amsterdam and back. I don't know if they still do but the times I flew it the aircraft were not very clean and the service was mediocre.
dlfehmel
Doug Fehmel 1
I have flown in a number of Combi's during my time living and working in Europe back in the 80's. The first was on a 737-100 flown by Eagle Air of Iceland. The second was a 727 flown by Icelandair, and the last one was a 747 on a flight to San Francisco out of Frankfurt, Germany.
pjt008
Paul Thomas 0
I wonder if United will ask passengers to help load, and then ask them "did anyone BESIDES UNITED ask you to bring a package on board" :D

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