AVAILABILITY AND USE OF DOMESTIC FLIGHTS: AIR FREIGHT
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Domestic Air Freight Ton-Miles (monthly data, not seasonally adjusted)
Though still much smaller than air passenger transportation, air freight is
an increasingly important revenue source for the air transportation industry.
It includes both freight handled by dedicated air cargo handlers and air cargo
shipped on combined passenger and air freight carriers (passenger luggage is not
considered cargo for this purpose).
Unused ton-miles are the difference between available ton-miles and revenue
ton-miles utilized. Changes in the level of spare capacity might be an indicator
of the timely availability of air freight services. For example, a shipper with
a sudden need for service will be more likely to obtain an appropriate flight
when spare capacity is higher. Space limitations also affect the availability
of air freight services.
| Available ton-miles (billions) |
3.72 |
3.74 |
| Available ton-miles percent change from same month previous year |
3.62 |
0.54 |
| Unused ton-miles (billions) |
2.55 |
2.61 |
| Unused ton-miles percent change from same month previous year |
9.44 |
2.35 |
| Revenue ton-miles (billions) |
1.17 |
1.14 |
| Revenue ton-miles percent change from same month previous year |
-7.87 |
-2.56 |
NOTES: The current value is compared to the value from the same period in the
previous year to account for seasonality.
A revenue ton-mile is equal to one ton carried one mile and measures utilization
of air-freight services. The data do not include international flights by U.S.
domestic carriers or domestic flights by foreign carriers.
For those planes that carry both freight and passengers, available freight
ton-miles are calculated by subtracting available seat-miles times 0.1 from total
available ton-miles. The data have been adjusted to have a standard 30-day month
by multiplying the data for each month by the ratio: 30/(actual days in month).
These indicators are components of freight and overall aircraft load factors displayed
in "Aircraft Capacity Utilization-Passengers and Freight."
The dramatic changes in the September 2001 data reflect the impact of the terrorist
attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, on aviation, including several days in which commercial
air operations were suspended.
Alaskan carriers that began reporting T100 data in January 2002 are excluded
from this report to retain comparability for comparisons with the previous year.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics,
Air Carrier Traffic Statistics Monthly, July 2002.
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