A Historical Look at the Air Freight Industry

A Historical Look at the Air Freight IndustryDuring the early years of aviation, people wereconstantly looking for practical uses ofairplanes. People were amazed with the machinesthat enabled men to fly, but the question of whatto do with them plagued everyone mind. Of course,the uses for airplanes could not be limited toentertainment, because that would be wasting thehuge potential of the technology on a prettysuperficial industry. The air freight industrybegan with the journey of a bolt of silk fromDayton to Columbus, Ohio in November 1910.

That fateful trip gave birth to the airfreightindustry as we know it today. After that event,everything just progressed to new heights for theair freight industry. One of the pioneers of theair freight industry is American Railway Express.The name of the company points out to the fact thatbefore the advent of the air freight industry,cargo was usually transported by train.The airfreight industry made a lot ofconveniences possible. First, there was thematter of speed. Air freight sped up deliveriesbetween businesses. This means that the airfreight industry made it possible for businessesto acquire various merchandise when they neededit. This also saved a lot of money on storage.Before the advent of the air freight industry,businesses had to keep as much stock as possible.This helped them to meet orders in time. Becauseof the introduction of air freight, businessescould just fly in any merchandise.

During the 1920, shipping of cargo via air grewmore popular. In November 14, 1926, the NationalAir Transport Company was born. This companydelivered the first air cargo in the United Statesin September 1, 1927. Many more companies werefounded as promoters of the air freight industry.As the industry was still relatively young, thesecompanies did not make much profit.The air freight industry got to a slow startbecause of the fact that they had stiffcompetition coming from passenger carriers. Manyestablished passenger carriers opposed theestablishment of an all-cargo air freightindustry mainly because they feared it woulddestabilize the air industry.Another reason why the air freight industry didnot grow as people hoped was that most businesseswere unable to sustain the huge losses associatedwith starting an air freight operation. While

some people attempted to remedy this by combiningair freight with air passenger transport, theyonly succeeded in slowing down the industry.The revolution of the air freight industry cameabout when a man named Fred Smith noticed that thecommon practice of combining air freight withpassenger freight was highly inefficient. Heproposed that air freights should have differentflight patterns from passenger flights. He wassuccessful in gathering funds mainly because ofhis proposal for a guaranteed next-day-deliveryservice. And so it was that in April 1973, theFederal Express began operations. Of course, theinitial years of business were hard. However,after three years of flying cargo, the company wasbeginning to show profit.By the 1980, Federal express was a household name.This just goes to show you how far a truly greatidea can take you. Today, the air freight industryis booming and companies make millions of dollars