Weight of everything that earns revenue on a flight, namely passengers and their baggage, cargo and mail, excluding the aircraft, crew and fuel.
What it is
Payload is the whole point of a commercial flight. Its maximum is found by subtracting the operating empty weight (OEW) from the maximum zero fuel weight (MZFW). To calculate it, airlines weigh cargo and checked baggage and use standard weights for passengers; in Europe the standard figure for an adult with hand baggage is 84 kilograms.
Payload and fuel compete for the same margin below the maximum take-off weight. On short routes the aircraft can fly full, but on the longest ones it often has to give up some payload to carry more fuel. For a freighter, maximum payload is the headline figure: a Boeing 747-8F can carry more than 130 tonnes.
On Vuelopedia
Related terms
Cite
To cite this page in academic work, an article or Wikipedia, choose the style and copy the reference. The access date is today.
This page was last updated on October 9, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Payload. Retrieved October 18, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/payload
MLA
“Payload.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/payload. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Payload.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/payload.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Payload. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/payload (Accessed: 18 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_payload,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Payload}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-09},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/payload},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/payload}},
urldate = {2026-10-18},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-18}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/payload |title=Payload |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-18 |language=en}}