Kalitta Air, pointing to weak economic conditions and a poor response from air forwarders, is dropping its plans to run an overnight air cargo freighter network, the airline said.

"This deal fell through," Robert Hunter, the chief of the prospective charter operation told the Airforwarders Association in a message last week.

"The current price of fuel, (oil was around $80 per barrel when we started to explore this) and the weak economy, and the fact the participation and commitment from the membership was not as robust as we would have liked, has forced us to back away from the project at this time," Hunter's message said. "I had forwarded a tariff that we needed to determine if rates were in the ball park. Only a couple of companies replied," he said. "I assume the tariffs wouldn't have worked."

The operation was aimed at replacing the forwarder-focused network flown by Kitty Hawk Aircargo, which ceased operations last year, saying it faced rising costs and poor support from forwarders. Kalitta, a Michigan-based freighter operator, planned to run the network on a charter basis and wanted forwarders to provide a financial commitment in advance to get the planes in the air.

Forwarders praised the idea but apparently balked at providing money up front. The forwarders are navigating through a sagging domestic air cargo market and freight that had moved on dedicated networks now faces competition from expedited trucking and competing common carriage capacity on other carriers such as BAX Global.

Kalitta estimated the airline would cost about $15 million to start and about $500,000 to operate nightly.

"We would like to do this but, would need a commitment of a much grander scale by the forwarding community than was offered," Hunter said. "We have the resources, but hundreds of thousands of dollars a night in fuel cost would cause us a short lived venture if we didn't get excellent support, at rates that will cover the operating cost."