All-cargo flights: two major peaks each day
Flights by all-cargo aircraft complement passenger flights in a couple of ways. First, they carry 50% of the world’s air cargo, while the rest travels in the holds of passenger aircraft.
What is less well known is that cargo flights have two busy periods, just before the passenger day starts in earnest, and just as the passenger flights are finishing for the day. The graph shows the pattern of flight departures by hour of the day (in local time). This is an average for the whole of 2019.
Cargo departures have a peak in the 0400-0459 slot, decline to a low point in the middle of the day, then climb to a stronger peak in late evening. Even though 2021 was disrupted by Covid-19, the variation during the day was not that different; some of the peaks were just a little lower. (cj)