Transporting Packages Instead of People
When COVID-19 cases began to rise and passenger traffic decreased, the FAA’s quick response and collaboration with industry experts helped establish exceptions for airlines to transport cargo on passenger planes.
Originally published by the FAA AVS Flyer on October 22, 2020.
With many passenger planes seeing limited or no use in response to the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency, some airlines are looking for additional ways to safely and effectively use their fleets. That’s where the FAA’s Cargo Exemption team comes in. Made up of experts from across the public and private sectors, including the FAA, the Cargo Exemption Team collaborates to create safety standards and exemptions for transporting cargo in the cabin of passenger planes.
“We became aware that passenger airlines worldwide were interested in trying to transport cargo in some of the passenger airplanes no longer flying passengers,” said Jeff Gardlin, aerospace engineer and senior technical specialist in the FAA’s Air Certification Service. “We reached out to the operators, some of our partner authorities, and other countries to understand what was going on. In the early days [of the public health emergency], there was an issue with essential goods getting from point A to point B. With the decrease in passengers, airlines are looking for ways to mitigate the downturn in business,” Gardlin explained.
To meet the potential demand, the cargo freight experts in the FAA took up the challenge and developed a set of best practices and oversight procedures that allow operators to safely switch from transporting passengers to cargo. The Cargo Exemption Team worked hand-in-hand with the FAA’s Office of Rulemaking, airplane manufacturers, mechanics and operators associations, as well as other aviation associations, to create a set of exemptions for transforming a passenger plane into a cargo plane.
Exemptions expedite liftoff
Simply put, with an exemption in hand, more airplanes can take off. Instead of people in the seats, there will be cargo in the cabin. In practice, however, the cargo switcheroo is more nuanced. “There are two different exemptions to fit cargo in the plane,” explained Gardlin. “One allows airlines to carry cargo utilizing passenger seats as a means to hold the cargo, and the other one allows seats to be removed and the cargo restrained directly to the [seat] tracks on the floor.” These exemptions follow existing requirements for cargo planes but tailor the weight and balance and cargo conditions to passenger planes.
To find the best set of standards that could fit the widest array of plane types and storage methods, the Cargo Exemption Team relied on communication and collaboration across the FAA and with industry. “We’ve had lots of conversations with maintenance and certification people in the field, the operators and some of the aviation associations,” said Gardlin. “They worked with us pretty candidly and shared information so that we understood what was going on and could deal with it. We got some insights that we applied to the exemptions. Everyone was committed and willing to step up and do what it takes.”
As many variations of planes exist, there are roughly twice as many possible exemptions required to make this option available for all passenger fleets. Instead of developing two new exemptions for each plane, the cargo team determined the broadest criteriaapplicable for the most number of planes while ensuring maximum safety for all configurations and plane types.
“We were consulting with a lot of different people and organizations about design practices and system configurations that the planes would be able to support,” said Gardlin. “We talked with the airframe manufacturers about what conditions they believed were reasonable. One of our first priorities was to agree on some basic standards and principles so that operators wouldn’t have to figure them out on the fly.”
Preparing for the future
Looking ahead, the team convened and decided to create a set of best practices and standards that could be used to build future exemptions for airlines that wished to take advantage. This approach was both timely and time-saving. “We really didn’t want to have to continually process more and more and more exemptions,” said Gardlin. “So the system we worked out is one where we can grant one exemption on behalf of, say, Airlines for America, which then allows an operator to file a letter of intent that says, ‘Hey, we want to do that as well.’ So the one exemption builds in a way for other people to take advantage of future exemptions.”
Once an interested airline files and has provided documentation that it meets the requirements, the exemption is granted. The release for the exemption will last until July of the following year.
While moonlighting as a cargo plane may not become a common practice of passenger planes going forward, the ability to anticipate needs, revise guidelines, and provide oversight in real time is the strength of the FAA’s approach to review and certification.
The speed, flexibility, and precision of the team also shows the value of the Senior Technical Specialist/Chief Scientific and Technical Advisors program, which brings in top technical experts to solve pressing concerns in aerospace technology. The cargo exemption project brought together key experts who worked closely to address a need.
“I think we built a little credibility with this approach,” Gardlin said. “Getting here took the wholehearted commitment of the FAA to do what it took to address the problem and solve it. I was only a small part of a collective effort. We worked hard with folks all over. There were a lot of weekends and nights, and everyone did what they needed to do to get it done. And if something does happen down the road where the lessons learned would be useful again, the credibility that we built up may help us to get an equally candid dialogue with industry and our government partners on future, time-sensitive projects.”
