Airplanes are funny... the word “long term storage” means anything over seven days when you’re talking about an airplane.
We are rotating airplanes in and out of “long-term storage” and we are rotating airplanes in and out of temporary parking.
We are flying a modest fraction of the flights that we flew before the pandemic, so obviously a lot of our aircraft are spending a lot of time on the ground.
Our older 777 are flying more than our newer 777, due to the way the leasing arrangements are structured. 757 and 767 are spending a lot of time not flying. However, to your point, United is spending the money in both consumables and labor costs to keep every single one of those airplanes ready to go.
Interestingly, the 787 is being utilized at 100%, none of those airplanes are on the ground for more than an hour or two every day. We took delivery of seven of them this year, and we are expecting some deliveries early next year. The airplane has a ton of room for cargo, and it burns very little fuel, which means that we can make money hauling just cargo using that aircraft.
In today’s market, a flight that is cash flow positive is a good thing, and a rare thing. United happens to be flying more cargo than every other US airline combined. We are able to leverage a global network, with facilities and people in over 40 countries around the world, who already have established cargo handling and local relationships, As well as an extensive fleet of widebody aircraft.
Our competitors, like Delta and American, have parked much of the widebody international fleet. They didn’t carry as much cargo as we did before the pandemic, so they cannot create that infrastructure from scratch and are unable to do the volume of cargo that we do. As passenger traffic increases, be available belly space for cargo will increase as well, and the cost of flying cargo will drop. At some point, cargo only flying with passenger aircraft will become unprofitable .
But carrying cargo in the belly will continue to be an important, enduring, line of operations for us.
We are rotating airplanes in and out of “long-term storage” and we are rotating airplanes in and out of temporary parking.
We are flying a modest fraction of the flights that we flew before the pandemic, so obviously a lot of our aircraft are spending a lot of time on the ground.
Our older 777 are flying more than our newer 777, due to the way the leasing arrangements are structured. 757 and 767 are spending a lot of time not flying. However, to your point, United is spending the money in both consumables and labor costs to keep every single one of those airplanes ready to go.
Interestingly, the 787 is being utilized at 100%, none of those airplanes are on the ground for more than an hour or two every day. We took delivery of seven of them this year, and we are expecting some deliveries early next year. The airplane has a ton of room for cargo, and it burns very little fuel, which means that we can make money hauling just cargo using that aircraft.
In today’s market, a flight that is cash flow positive is a good thing, and a rare thing. United happens to be flying more cargo than every other US airline combined. We are able to leverage a global network, with facilities and people in over 40 countries around the world, who already have established cargo handling and local relationships, As well as an extensive fleet of widebody aircraft.
Our competitors, like Delta and American, have parked much of the widebody international fleet. They didn’t carry as much cargo as we did before the pandemic, so they cannot create that infrastructure from scratch and are unable to do the volume of cargo that we do. As passenger traffic increases, be available belly space for cargo will increase as well, and the cost of flying cargo will drop. At some point, cargo only flying with passenger aircraft will become unprofitable .
But carrying cargo in the belly will continue to be an important, enduring, line of operations for us.
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