The main objective of this paper is a comprehensive analysis of the economic and business processes in the case of the introduction of cargo transportation in the cargo compartments of passenger aircraft. The paper focuses on the definition and description of air freight transport, a brief history, types of cargo transported, advantages and disadvantages of air freight transport and the most common business models used in air freight transport. We also analyse the current state of the art in the transportation of cargo in the baggage compartments of passenger aircraft. Subsequently, through the use of research methods, which are data collection and synthesis, literary research, data analysis, PESTLE analysis and also comparison of the resulting data, we have comprehensively analysed the economic aspects in the field of cargo transportation through the use of available cargo hold capacity, thus fulfilling our objective. At the end of the paper, we have tried to suggest possible optimization procedures that could help airlines to increase profit generation.