Many frieght flights , land in Anchorage? Why is that? passenger flights are almost all non stop. while following flights you can tell that their freight, they almost all seem to land in Anchorage. Why is that?
Fedex has a huge hub in Anchorage. It is their gateway to Asia. Here’s an article detailing some of the advantages of using Anchorage as their hub.
Fuel is the most likely reason. Heavy loads require more fuel to stay aloft. So Anchorage is about midway point and last real viable stop for large aircraft before they travel on to Asia.
Same reason that makes Gander NL CYQX such a popular stop for transatlantic flights.
See alot of Evergreen and AirAtlas 747’s plus An-124’s.
Sbord must be too young to remember when not only did cargo flights but just about every flight between Europe and the Far East (mainly Tokyo) stopped in Anchorage. Many flights originating in North America to the Far East also stopped there.
As mentioned by another poster, fuel is a major reason. Most cargo aircraft don’t have the range of their passenger cousins.
Besides FedEx, UPS and Northwest use Anchorage not only as a fuel stop but as a cargo hub.
Well i’m not that young , i do remember that many flights stopped in Anchorage. I didn’t realize that freight loads would be that much heavier ,(spaced out) but that makes sense. The flights i was following were Chinese aircraft. And so , I didn’t think they would hub there? Unless they have an agreement to reload/ and redistrube loads with the hubbing freight complanies? Most likely like everyone said, to refuel .
I thought some passenger flights still went through there too.
The occasional passenger jet will make a “technical stop” there. East coast flights to Asia used to file to ANC, if winds aloft permitted them to make it all the way to NRT (for example), they’d change destinations enroute and not stop. Otherwise, they’d stop, get a splash and go.
Fuel…and since there isn’t the passenger traffic of a SEA or YVR, it makes sense.
Even now, as the airlines stretch the limits of the new aircraft with ultra long range, there are days when they can’t get out of the headwind and just file to PANC. Its really amazing how instead of struggling up to FL320, as they do when they have full fuel trying to make it all the way out to the far east, these jumbos can suddenly leap up to FL380 like its nothing, since they never intend to make it all the way out there, just to ANC.
DM