JAL Freighters Return after 13 Year Break: A New Businesses Mainstay to Meet Societal Needs

August 28, 2025

This column provides an overview that extends from the basics of what freighters are through to the reasons and objectives behind JAL’s resumption of cargo flights, how domestic and overseas customers have responded to the move, and the outlook for the future. This is the background story to the resumption of freighter operations and how they carry the hopes of everyone involved at JALCARGO.

While some freighters are purpose-built for carrying cargo, many are converted passenger aircraft. The airframes of the freighters that JAL introduced from February 2024 are converted Boeing 767-300ERs, mid-sized jets that carried passengers prior to August 2023.

One of JAL’s Boeing 767-300ER freighters. Conversion from a passenger aircraft included covering over all the windows and fitting a large door to the main deck for the loading and unloading of freight.

On a Boeing 767-300ER, for example, the upper and lower cargo decks have a combined freight capacity of about 50 tons. While the lower deck can only take freight that is up to about 1.6 m in height, the upper main deck can fit up to 2.4 m. This extra 0.8 m in height significantly expands the uses to which freighters can be put.

With its excellent speed and reliability, air freight is widely used for transporting products such as fresh produce, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and automotive parts. Not only are freighters able to carry more freight on each flight than a passenger aircraft, they can also carry items such as semiconductor manufacturing machinery that are too large to fit in a passenger aircraft. Similarly, there are also items that can only be carried in a freighter due to international rules that place restrictions on the air-freighting of items designated as dangerous goods. As the parts and materials required by today’s leading industries include some designated as dangerous goods that cannot be carried on passenger aircraft, it is freighters that carry some of these goods.

Getting a new route up and running truly does take a lot of preparatory work, and we coordinated with numerous other departments, paying close attention not to make any errors or omissions. This included working with the department responsible for passenger flight scheduling, calling on their expertise to draw up a schedule for freighter flights.

We were also doing the freighter conversions at the same time, with conversion work on the first aircraft commencing in Singapore in September 2023. Final preparations got underway once the first converted aircraft came back in January 2024, shortly before the resumption of operations. This included training on ground operations such as the loading and unloading of cargo at our hub at Narita International Airport, and conducting test flights to Chubu Centrair International Airport. Through these efforts, freighter operations successfully recommenced from February 2024.” (Yoshizawa)

Resuming freighter operations after 13 years means that, while we have retained past know-how in some areas, there are some areas where we have not. Indeed, most of the work we have done on expanding capabilities has been system development from a zero base. We sometimes find ourselves asking, is this even possible? Nevertheless, we have many staff racking their brains about how to move forward and we have gone about development in consultation with people from various different departments.” (Miyata)

“In resuming operations, there were also many instances when we called on the advice of veteran staff who had been involved in the freighter business 13 years ago. It also might have been our last chance to acquire the know-how that these people had to offer for resuming freighter operations.

For those of us in the cargo business, the freighters represent a dream. Personally, the reason I joined JAL in the first place was to work in the cargo business. Hearing that we would be flying freighters again came as a huge boost to my motivation. Meanwhile, by giving me a sense of how important the cargo business is, the COVID-19 pandemic served as a visceral reminder of just how heavy my responsibilities are in this project.” (Yoshizawa)

“What delighted me more than anything else was customers asking, we have been looking forward to this. I have even had customers tell me that they couldn’t get started without JAL’s freighter service.

What customers appreciate most of all is the quality and attentiveness of our service. At JAL, airport staff and sales staff work together to look after customers’ precious cargo. A particular feature is that we have set up numerous opportunities for the sharing of information from sales staff to airport staff in an effort to convey what customers want for their cargo and reflect this in our services. In the case of difficult-to-handle goods in particular, sales staff like myself do what we can to make customers feel more reassured, even going so far as to be present at the airport when their consignments are loaded.”

“Some of the main difficulties we faced in resuming freighter services to mainland China related to organizing the flight schedules and the takeoff and landing slots. As Shanghai (Pudong), Tianjin, and Dalian are all highly congested airports, getting approval for new applications to these locations is not easy. This meant it took us about two months to obtain permission, with many visits to the Civil Aviation Administration of China. We also called on the help of the local airport authorities.

It was only after we had formally resumed operations that we got a sense of the extent of customer demand. During the 13 years when we had not been flying, we received more than a few inquiries about whether JAL operated freighters. It seems that JAL’s high quality standards had remained etched in customers minds.

In terms of freight out of mainland China, demand has been growing for items such as consumer goods and electrical products driven by the expansion of the e-commerce market. To meet increasingly diverse customer requirements, we want to continue the work we are doing to improve safety management and service quality.”

“Our plans for the future obviously include expanding the geographical scope of our services and further increasing our cargo carrying capacity. To this end, we want to expand the business by considering different means of transportation to suit different circumstances, such as making use of large freighters from other companies.

The JAL Group vision is to “build a better future where everyone can feel fulfilled and hopeful.” Customer inquiries have been increasing over the year since freighter flights resumed and the scope of the business is expanding. While this has been happening, we have been increasingly reminded of how the hopes of many people are embodied in each cargoes, with each movement of goods having its own reasons and background. A vibrant flow of goods means that the many hopes this freight carries reach their destination, putting smiles on the faces of their recipients. While “fulfillment” has many different meanings, I believe that this too is one of its many forms. My hope is that, through the growth of JALCARGO’s business, we can contribute to a society in which people feel fulfilled.”