Evening freighters westbound on the Atlantic

Comhrá

Can anyone in ATC explain why the evening westbound transatlantic freighters, FedEx, UPS etc. always seem to be assigned low flight levels, 310 - 340, while the few late BA, AA and Virgin passenger flights still seem to get the higher levels?

I realise some westbound transatlantic evening flights get lower levels not to conflict with the early eastbound traffic leaving the US, but the poor old cargo guys going west late in the day seem to have to settle for the less economic lower flight levels. Just curious as to why.

phonypony

Maybe they're heavier?

irishbloke77

That's the levels the cargo flights generally request for the ocean, it's not the level they are "restricted" to. Probably due to weight.

Also, when going west at lower levels, you are less impacted by the predominantly eastbound jet stream winds just above. This means you can go more direct, just at a lower level, such as cargo flights.

Whereas, for passenger flights, they believe it works out cheaper to fly higher, but around the jetstream.

A fully laden 747 will struggle to make it to some of the states of america at FL300, but can fly to the west coast at FL340 and above. They won't accept the lower levels, they will fly off the tracks to get the higher levels.

donkey balls

FL 310 TO 350 is the norm for the freighter lads as the aircraft are normally operating to MTOW.