AVAILABILITY AND USE OF INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS BY U.S. AIR CARRIERS:
AIR FREIGHT
International Air Freight Ton-Miles (monthly data, not seasonally adjusted)
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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) |
2.74 |
2.38 |
| Available ton-miles percent change from same month previous year |
3.84 |
-13.24 |
| Unused ton-miles (billions) |
1.40 |
1.24 |
| Unused ton-miles percent change from same month previous year |
6.32 |
-11.51 |
| Revenue ton-miles (billions) |
1.35 |
1.14 |
| Revenue ton-miles percent change from same month previous year |
1.39 |
-15.03 |
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.
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 data include both transborder and foreign flights by U.S. carriers,
but do not include any flights by foreign carriers.
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, May 2002.
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