American Airlines hasn’t flown cargo-only flights since 1984. That just changed.
An American Airlines 777-300 used for cargo-online flights. (American Airlines/)The belly of a big Boeing 777 American Airlines aircraft offers plenty of space for cargo. In fact, the deck to which your bags disappear on a typical flight can hold as much as 100,000 to 120,000 pounds of freight. That’s the equivalent, in pounds, of more than 33 Toyota Corollas.But on recent American Airlines flights between Dallas and Frankfurt, Germany, there were no paying customers, and thus no bags. These were flights solely for cargo—stuff like mail for the military and machine parts. The first mission took off for Frankfurt on March 20 with some 37,000 pounds of goods on board. When it returned to Dallas-Fort Worth, it was hauling 60,000 pounds.It’s not rare for American to carry cargo—but usually that freight coexists with passenger bags, in whatever space is available in the belly. It’s highly unusual, however, for the...