Tuesday, April 14, 2015

New box hauler


LAX has seen the addition of a handful of new cargo operators this year. This happens to be one of them. Qatar Cargo (callsign: Qatari) passes through LAX while on the way between Liege, Belgium, and Mexico City.

 


6 comments:

  1. Looks like this guy is lost, backwards and forwards past the same spot...

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    1. Just showing off for the camera! Actually, they landed on Runway 25 Left, and then taxied eastwards on Taxiway A to park at the ICC ramp (which is in the southeast corner of the airport).

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  2. Are they going to start flying to LAX for passenger service?

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    1. Yes, I believe in January, Qatar will begin offering service between Doha and Los Angeles. Later next year, they'll also begin service to Atlanta and Boston. See this LA Times article:

      http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-trb-qatar-airways-lax-20150505-story.html

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  3. Also, it's interesting to see that most international carriers have both a passenger and cargo operation. How come US carriers don't?

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    1. The funny thing is, most of them used to. The last one I can think of was Northwest; we used to get a Northwest Cargo B742 every morning at LAX. Don't remember for sure, but I think it came from Tokyo (Narita). I've seen old pictures of American Cargo aircraft, but that was before my time. Most carriers split the pax and freight operations at some point. I imagine that, beyond the flight crews, there isn't much commonality between them. The freighters often use different equipment, and park in different locations, than the passenger haulers. Most passenger planes actually also have cargo on board. The best example I can think of at LAX is KLM. Before they moved from Terminal Two, we had a prime view of what they put on and took of those airplanes. KLM quite often would have horses, and I can remember seeing at least one car get loaded into the belly of a KLM plane as well.

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