United Parcel Service to End Charter Flights

United Parcel Service Inc. plans to end its charter service, citing a slowdown in the economy and its noncompetitive fleet of aging Boeing 727s. UPS Airlines, based in Louisville, Ky., is negotiating with travel companies to terminate the flights by year’s end, spokesman Mark Giuffre said. The company uses four 727-100s each weekend for flights between Atlanta, Louisville, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and several beach destinations in the Caribbean. A fifth jet was reserved as a spare. UPS started the service in 1997, hoping to generate some revenue by adding seats and other amenities to cargo planes that otherwise would have been idle on weekends. The company said it has flown 500,000 people on charter flights. Competitors have turned to larger planes with longer ranges than the 727, Giuffre said. The UPS planes seat only 113 people. The charter service earned a small profit last year on revenue of $28 million. “It was harder to remain competitive, and if we were going to continue on in the business, we would have had to invest in larger planes,” he said. “Although we had a lot of fun with this, we didn’t see a long-term future for it.” Separately, UPS said it plans to place four of its 51 727-100s in storage until cargo shipments rebound. The 727 model is more than 30 years old and, with three engines and a three-member flight crew, costs more to operate than newer planes. The company also has 10 727-200s.