Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisors
In short: today's best AI models could do about 30% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about the same by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 70% of the time, stays with people.
Supervise and coordinate the activities of ground crew in the loading, unloading, securing, and staging of aircraft cargo or baggage. May determine the quantity and orientation of cargo and compute aircraft center of gravity. May accompany aircraft as member of flight crew and monitor and handle cargo in flight, and assist and brief passengers on safety and emergency procedures. Includes loadmasters.
9,760 people do this job in the US. $58,170 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on12 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people28 h
Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisors, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 12 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 28 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Distribute cargo to maximize use of space (about 5 h); Determine the quantity and orientation of cargo, and compute an aircraft's center of gravity (about 4 h); Calculate load weights for different aircraft compartments, using charts and computers (about 3 h).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 30%
- 0%
- 70%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 1%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 29%. Today's estimate: 30%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
None of this job's 6 tasks showed up in the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled in any of its 7 releases, from February 2025 to May 2026.
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 16% of this job's working time as physical work. For 11% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 11% in a purpose-built cell. 0.11 of 3, the 512th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 84%
- No robot shown 5%
- In a purpose-built cell 11%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 6 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accompany aircraft as a member of the flight crew to monitor and handle cargo in flight.Done yearly or less by most who do it.Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 38% | 4.2 h1.7 h to 1 work day | Stays with people | |
| Direct ground crews in the loading, unloading, securing, or staging of aircraft cargo or baggage.Done daily by most who do it. | 21% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Distribute cargo to maximize use of space.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ABLE / ABLE Mk2 (Automated Baggage Loading Equipment), AAT Automation, with SICK Visionary-T Mini 3D camera (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 12% | 33 min13 min to 1.1 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Train new employees in areas such as safety procedures or equipment operation.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 11% | 2.5 h50 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Determine the quantity and orientation of cargo, and compute an aircraft's center of gravity.Done daily by most who do it. | 10% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Calculate load weights for different aircraft compartments, using charts and computers.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 21 min8 min to 42 min | 100%Half by now |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- First-Line Supervisors of Material-Moving Machine and Vehicle Operators45% now, 45% by 2028
- Airfield Operations Specialists28% now, 33% by 2028
- Transportation Inspectors30% now, 30% by 2028
- First-Line Supervisors of Passenger Attendants32% now, 33% by 2028
- First-Line Supervisors of Helpers, Laborers, and Material Movers, Hand33% now, 34% by 2028
- Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers32% now, 68% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisors is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 30% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 30% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisors come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Distribute cargo to maximize use of space (100% of the task's time now); Determine the quantity and orientation of cargo, and compute an aircraft's center of gravity (100% of the task's time now); and Calculate load weights for different aircraft compartments, using charts and computers (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisors stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Accompany aircraft as a member of the flight crew to monitor and handle cargo in flight; Direct ground crews in the loading, unloading, securing, or staging of aircraft cargo or baggage; and Train new employees in areas such as safety procedures or equipment operation. Together such tasks are about 70% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisors?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisors?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 16% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 11% of the working time. Its index is 0.11 of 3. One example: ABLE / ABLE Mk2 (Automated Baggage Loading Equipment), AAT Automation, with SICK Visionary-T Mini 3D camera for "distribute cargo to maximize use of space". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 6 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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