P2F(Passenger To Freighter)Aircraft Conversion Market Heating Up

Lol ! That's a good one. I've always been really fascinated by cargo planes and the air freight market . That is interesting to learn that there is a spot market for that. Now I'm gonna dive deep down that rabbit hole and learn some about it

 

The 747 is a real classic. I've never flown one...waaaaaay out of my league...but the guys I know that do fly them have nothing but praise for it. The terms "honest airplane" and "You can really trust it" are heard a lot. My buddy got us on one that was in for maintenance and it was really impressive sitting up that high above the ground. LOL...That's about the same altitude we use with our sprayers when we're ferrying somewhere.
The sheer size was overwhelming. The biggest thing I've ever flown was a DC-4 and I thought it was big,,,until I got up close to the 47.

 

They are called freight forwarders. It's not quite the same as trucking though. You don't have O/Ops. It's really much more regulated. You need an FAA operating certificate and landing slots at most large airports. International flights require route authority from the host country.

Atlas is a large company that also owns Southern Air, although they recently merged all of the operations into a single operating certificate.

ATSG (Air Transport Services Group) is a holding company that owns ATI, ABX, Omni, and Airborne. They also just bought a company in Florida that is doing the P2F conversions on the 737.

In short, no, you aren't going to buy a 767 or A321 freighter and be able to run it like an O/O.

What you might be able to do is get a Caravan or other small airplane and fly under Part 135. Years ago, a lot of people did this carrying checks overnight when the actual paper had to be transferred between banks. FedEx's original business plan in the early 70's was based on moving overnight letters and contracts that had to be signed before Al invented the Internet.

I'll leave you with a view of and from my office.

P.S. The reason I'm here is most pilots have a side gig.

 

777

 

Incredible!! What type of freight is typically flying around nowadays? Everything that can be put on a truck? Or is it reserved mostly to package type freight(say ups,fedex amazon)?

 

I haven't kept up with all the latest goings on but I'll bet things haven't changed much. They'll haul anything that isn't over weight or prohibited by law and that can be tied down.
When Dad and his brothers had the DC-4s they hauled frozen fish, prize cattle, exotic hardwoods, clothing, bull semen, fuel, marine plywood, lightbulbs, rare art, live goldfish, live birds, aircraft engines, if you can think of it they probably hauled it. They were never big enough to be really competitive with the big guys but they tried it for about five years.
Like Dad said, they were so busy it was hard to realize that they were actually going broke. Maintenance was a constant headache. The cost of doing business in some of the South American and African countries was huge, especially when you had to keep paying off government officials. I imagine all that is probably done by the freight forwarders now.
The work was sporadic so keeping good pilots was a problem too. Good mechanics. then as now, were hard to keep. The parts inventory, especially the engines and hydraulic stuff was a money pit. Insurance was huge.
They finally sold off the DC-4s to a fuel tanker outfit in Alaska and went back to crop dusting, fire bombing, charter work and local air freight. Dad said if they were going to go broke they'd at least be close to home when it happened.