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United Cargo’s March schedule dented by removal of Boeing 777s

Airline confirms rerouting of shipments necessary to cover loss of cargo-only flights

A Boeing 777-200 lifts off at Los Angeles International Airport. (Photo: Flickr/Eric Salard)

United Cargo on Thursday published its March schedule that shows some reduced frequencies and travel lane suspensions due to the temporary removal of 24 Boeing 777-200 aircraft from the fleet as a safety precaution.

United Flight 328 from Denver to Honolulu was forced to make an emergency landing last Saturday after suffering a catastrophic failure in one of its two engines. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ordered United — the only U.S. operator of the 777-200 with Pratt & Whitney 4000-series engines — to inspect the fan blades on all engines.

United Airlines (NYSE: UAL) earlier this week warned shippers that it would return some aircraft from cargo-only operations to replace the lost passenger capacity and make other adjustments that could impact the March cargo schedule.

The new schedule preserves most international cargo routes, but United Cargo acknowledged in a message to customers that some cargo capacity is temporarily lost. It said the reduction in overall cargo capacity is minimal because the addition of more passenger flights as travel demand has increased has added more room to the system for cargo to travel in the lower deck.


United Cargo said suspended travel lanes can be served by alternate routings on passenger flights. 

“We remain committed to serving our freight customers even with the revisions to our March cargo schedule,” the airline said, adding it will contact customers that have been affected by any rescheduling to find alternate routings for their shipments.

The development is likely seen as more of an inconvenience than a major disruption by shippers, but it represents some marginal loss of widebody capacity at a time when available flights throughout the industry are already very thin.

Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.


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Eric Kulisch

Eric is the Supply Chain and Air Cargo Editor at FreightWaves. An award-winning business journalist with extensive experience covering the logistics sector, Eric spent nearly two years as the Washington, D.C., correspondent for Automotive News, where he focused on regulatory and policy issues surrounding autonomous vehicles, mobility, fuel economy and safety. He has won two regional Gold Medals and a Silver Medal from the American Society of Business Publication Editors for government and trade coverage, and news analysis. He was voted best for feature writing and commentary in the Trade/Newsletter category by the D.C. Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He won Environmental Journalist of the Year from the Seahorse Freight Association in 2014 and was the group's 2013 Supply Chain Journalist of the Year. In December 2022, Eric was voted runner up for Air Cargo Journalist by the Seahorse Freight Association. As associate editor at American Shipper Magazine for more than a decade, he wrote about trade, freight transportation and supply chains. He has appeared on Marketplace, ABC News and National Public Radio to talk about logistics issues in the news. Eric is based in Vancouver, Washington. He can be reached for comments and tips at ekulisch@freightwaves.com