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    • Passengers, Packages: The Paradox of Air Transport [view article]
      This is one of the nuttiest ideas I've ever heard.
      For one thing, the average passenger that checks luggage (only about 60% of all air passengers) is never going to be willing to 1) pack far enough ahead of time to get it picked up by an express company, or 2) be willing to have it deposited at their destination unprotected, or have some stranger sign for it. Keep in mind that many people don't go immediately to a hotel from the airport, so someone is going to have to take responsibility for securing their luggage when it arrives, which may be many hours before you claim it.

      Also, what makes you think that passenger airlines can easily fill their luggage compartments with profitable cargo? Their space-available cargo services are filled mostly with mail, and there is less and less mail in the system these days.

      Just because Heathrow had day one problems, it doesn't mean that managing airport luggage sorting is beyond the reach of modern technology. The biggest obstacle to efficiency is the spot checking and scanning that Homeland Security now requires, not the coding and routing itself.

      Face it -- people want their luggage to travel with them. They will never believe they are better off having lots of additional people handle and store it over a completely separate system on a separate schedule. And the purported cost savings will quickly turn into cost overrruns worse than anything happening in the current passenger system.
      May 13 04:33 PM
    • Six Air Courier Stocks to Transport Your Portfolio to New Heights [view article]
      What about Atlas Air (AAWW)? May 13 04:08 PM
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