For more than two decades, the air cargo industry has used the same factor to calculate the chargeable weight for low density cargo. This border was set on 167 kg/m3 or a weight of 1000 kg divided by a volume of 6 m3, hence the 1/6 density rule. This rule grew historically from 1/7 in the sixties and seventies, to 1/6 in the early eighties. A change was necessary, since airfreight became less dense and airline revenues, calculated based on weight, not volume, were subsequently dropping. Now, more than twenty years later, the same discussion flames up again in the air cargo world. Again, in these twenty years a lot has changed in the air transport world. The types of commodities, transported by airfreight, have changed dramatically. This resulted in a density change, according to the airlines. In any case, the question, whether to change the current density rule, is now back in the spotlight.

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