Aviation: Freight in the Sky

When a Midwest college boy was recently invited to fly to New York to be a guest on a TV quiz show, the airline shipped along the thing that made him distinctive: a 2,300-lb. sugar cookie that the lad had baked himself. Nowadays, the nation's airlines are willing to carry almost anything—including some substantial losses—in the rush to fill their cargo bins. Air freight (excluding air mail and air express) has increased more than 50% in the last four years, reaching a volume of $230 million last year. This year it will increase another 10%, and aviation experts believe that...