United Parcel Service Considers Start of Passenger Flights

UPS might become known as United People Service--carrying human cargo on planes normally occupied by freight--to make use of its idle planes during weekends.

A proposal is expected to be made to top management of United Parcel Service in a few weeks, and UPS airline division spokesman Ken Shapero can already hear the snickers about package deals and wrapping up vacation plans.

“We’ll probably hear the jokes on Letterman,” Shapero said Wednesday. “It’s a tall order. . . . Nobody wants to feel like they’re a box on an airplane.”

UPS sees profit prospects in passengers because most of its Boeing 727s aren’t used on the weekends. The flights would be chartered by travel companies that sell vacation packages and could begin in early 1997. Destinations would be determined by the travel firms.

Federal Express, UPS’ top competitor, considered providing similar passenger flights in the late 1970s but abandoned the idea, company spokeswoman Shirlee Clark said. FedEx opted instead to concentrate on its delivery service and still has no interest in charter flights, she said.

To convert a cargo plane into a charter flight, UPS would load a platform fitted with carpeting and seats through the plane’s extra-wide cargo doors.

Overhead storage compartments, reading lights and ventilation controls would be attached permanently and folded up during cargo flights, Shapero said from UPS’ airline headquarters in Louisville, Ky. Two permanent restrooms would also be added under the plan, which would require the approval of the Federal Aviation Administration.

The color scheme inside the plane would be splashier than UPS’ signature brown, he said.

UPS would initially convert five of its 182 planes to haul 113 passengers each.

The UPS fleet includes Boeing 747s, 767s and 757s and McDonnell Douglas DC-8s. Shapero said that on weekends, when the company’s air parcel traffic is consolidated onto larger aircraft, many of the 59 727-100s in the UPS fleet are idle.

The privately held firm has invested an estimated $15 million in each 727 aircraft for up-to-date Rolls-Royce engines, digital cockpit instruments and landing systems.