Airlines are known for getting passengers from point A to point B. And as far as passengers are concerned, planes are good for transportation – they need to get somewhere fast, and the planes will take them there, along with their luggage.
Planes can do more than just transport people – in addition to people and their luggage, they can also transport serious cargo. Yep, passenger planes are also carrying parcels. In this article, we will break that down a bit further.
For example, did you know that salmon travels on passenger planes? Yep, it’s true. Salmon, the amphibious creature that lives in the ocean, travels on passenger planes. That is because lately there is a demand for perishables, and air freight is obviously much faster than ocean freight:
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday said trade volumes would likely expand 4.2 percent in 2017, almost double the growth rate of 2016.
And here’s another great stat. Out of the approximately 25,000 passenger planes that travel every day, 15,000 of them are leased out by the postal service in order to book freight space for cargo shipping via air freight. Expensive? Maybe. But efficient as well.
Speaking of freight, there are a ton of freight forwarders out there looking to skim money off of expensive shipping costs. Finding a fast and cheap freight quote is tough, but we have seen an increasing number of online options for freight quotes, as well as a slew of freight guides for interested freight readers. (For information on donating your car to charity, check it out here).
As for the types of freight that is stored on planes, it can range from anything including hardware, food, medicine, and even flowers.
Freight is generally stored on pallets in the airplane storage area, which is a flat transport structure, which supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, a pallet jack, a front loader, a jacking device, or a crane.
The standard 747 plane can carry up to 10,000 cubic feet of cargo, along with 266 passengers! That is a massive total weight but quite efficient when it comes to combining passenger planes with freight shipping needs.
The fun part is that generally passengers do not know or become aware of any cargo that is being shipped on their plane. So long as their luggage is shipped correctly, there isn’t a care or shipping worry in the world, er, sky that is.
