Domestic Air Cargo Industry in Australia - Bureau of Infrastructure ...

Chapter 6not obtain as much of the profitable daytime traffic if it did notoperate freighters at night.Curfews on the operation of jet aircraft have affected the ecor,omicsof cargo operations at Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide airports wherethey have restricted access by mixed-configuration aircraft and jetfreighters at night. Turbo-prop aircraft which satisfy the noiserestrictions have therefore been used on night flights. However, thishas probably involved some cost penalties as a result of the use ofinefficient aircraft for the movement of air cargo and inability toachieve economies of scale in aircraft operation. For example, it isreported that an A300 carrying freight without passengers can upliftapproximately double the payload at the same cost as existing turbopropfreighter aircraft (Independent Review of Economic Regulation ofDomestic Aviation 1987, 254). One industry participant has claimedthat the curfew at Sydney airport costs operators $15 mill ion perannum in lost opportunities alone (Australian Financial Review 1986).FREIGHTERSTable 6.1 presents information on the configuration of aircraft usedby the trunk and regional airlines to transport domestic air cargo in1984-85. Around 67 per cent of air cargo moved on domestic scheduledservices in that year was carried on mixed-configuration aircraft.The proportion of cargo carried on pure freighter aircraft variedbetween carriers with Ansett, Australian and IPEC being the majoroperators of large aircraft in the dedicated cargo configuration.The airlines' scheduled freighter operations are concentrated onseveral major routes where there is inadequate capacity on mixedconfigurationaircraft and a lack of competitive road transportservices. In 1984-85 services from Melbourne to Hobart and Launcestonaccounted for 38 per cent of airline freighter traffic in terms oftonne-kilometres (Department of Aviation 1987b, 35-45). The nextlargest operation involved the Melbourne-Perth route where thecorresponding figure was 31 per cent. Australian's freighteroperations were concentrated on the Melbourne-Perth route while themajority of Ansett's and IPEC's trafficinvolved services betweenMelbourne and Launceston.The large aircraft operated in an all-cargo configuration by AAF,Australian and IPEC include both pure freighters and mixedconfigurationaircraft which carry freight without passengers.AAF's 8727-200 freighter has a capacity of 18 tonnes and is crewed andmaintained by Ansett. AAF also charters aircraft from other operating49