Dictionary

megacarrier en · NOUN

Etymology

From mega- + carrier.

Meanings

1. A very large certified airline.
   • But, actually, three virtual megacarriers have emerged – the Star, Skyteam, and Star Alliances. 2016, Paul Stephen Dempsey, Routledge Handbook of Public Aviation Law, page 6:
   • It was only because of concerns about how to maintain viability as a regional airline in a megacarrier environment that both Western's management and its employees responded positively to overtures by Delta, resulting in Western becoming a significant part of Delta's entry into the megacarrier class. 1995, Peter Cappelli, Airline Labor Relations in the Global Era: The New Frontier, page 224:
   • The three tiers include: regional/feeder carrier, new-entrant/low-cost/no-frills carrier, and the “megacarrier. 2016, John G. Wensveen, Air Transportation: A Management Perspective, page 283:
2. A large aircraft carrier or other ship.
   • The ship's company for each megacarrier topped 25,000 men, not counting the pilots and air crews for the aircraft on board. 2013, Mack Maloney, The Sky Ghost:
   • The studied period goes across different dominant ship technologies, such as sail, steam, combustion, specialized vessels (e.g. container, tanker), and megacarriers. 2015, César Ducruet, Maritime Networks: Spatial structures and time dynamics:
   • Twenty-one Sheltok megacarriers vanished without a trace, and others had close calls. 2010, Julian May, The Sagittarius Whorl: Book Three of the Rampart Worlds Trilogy:
3. A freight transport company offering many shipment methods, such as rail, truck, and air service.
   • Another transportation innovation is the development of megacarriers, freight transportation companies that offer several shipment methods, including rail, truck, and air service. 2016, William M. Pride, Foundations of Marketing, page 357:
   • Along with intramodal mergers, intermodal carrier buy outs and diversification into businesses completely divorced from transportation, rail megacarriers continue the "rationalization* of their lines. 1987, Handling & Shipping Management, volume 28, page 30:
   • According to Metz, megacarriers will evolve gradually, first with common ownership of several individual companies, followed by integrated marketing among subsidiaries, integration of operations will occur very slowly and cautiously. 1982, Modern Railroads, volumes 37-38, page 69:
   • The multimodal, transcontinental megacarriers of the future will probably coalesce around the capital assets represented by today's major railroad rights-of-way. 1983, “How Megacarriers May Emerge”, in Forbes, volume 132, page 436:

Forms