Passenger to Freight Usage Changes
As the Covid-19 Pandemic continues to impact the Aviation industry and in particular commercial passenger services we are making some further adjustments to how we track the ongoing usage of aircraft.
The global demand for PPE and other commodities has seen a number of operators utilise their aircraft for Freight/Cargo operations. This has been a combination of Belly Freight/Cargo and/or Main Deck Freight/Cargo on passenger aircraft, with Special Bulletins and STCs issued to enable this to be conducted safely. Some aircraft have had seats removed and are being used for Freight/Cargo operations routinely and in response to this Cirium will now be tracking these changes, with a change of usage event and the removal of seats from our interiors data. This is not a formal Freight/Cargo conversion and these conversions will continue to be recorded and the significant alterations made, such as the installation of main deck cargo doors. An explanation of what we do and don’t track is below. As with any of our data we will be monitoring this closely in the coming weeks and months as the industry’s reaction to COVID-19 continues.
From June 8th we will begin to track aircraft meeting the following criteria with a change of usage;
- Seats have been removed in their entirety to allow for Cargo to be carried on their main deck.
- Some seats may remain for Crew or where the entire capacity of a main deck is not required.
- However as passengers will not be permitted to fly alongside Cargo, all seats will be removed in our data.
- This will be treated on a case by case basis and when we can confirm the re-configuration has been completed.
- Due to the time it can take to remove seats varying from aircraft to aircraft we will endeavour to provide as accurate a date as possible for the reconfigurations.
- Once the aircraft has been reconfigured it will remain as Freight/Cargo usage until such time we can confirm its return to passenger operations.
- When known future Scheduled Change of Usage events will be recorded and reviewed.
The changes we are making will not cover the following;
- Any aircraft being repurposed for Freight/Cargo operations where the seats remain in place on an aircraft.