American International Cargo was to bless its L-1011, reconfigured from passenger-freight to all-cargo capacity, in a ceremony today at Honolulu Airport.

"The demand is growing," said Fred Spencer, regional manager in Hawaii.

One factor is that major passenger carriers such as United Airlines have switched many of their flights to smaller passenger aircraft such as the Boeing 757, which have less belly-cargo space than the bigger jumbos, he said.

American International, based in Phoenix and owned by aviation investor Conrad Kalitta of Ypsilanti, Mich., has been providing mainland-Hawaii all-freight services since early 1992.

It began with a McDonnell-Douglas DC-8, picking up business from the new trend of freighting live Hawaii-raised cattle to the mainland for fattening and slaughter, and increased capacity to a 747 in April 1993.

Now, AIC handles freight for several major freight forwarding companies, Spencer said.

One day a week, the 747 goes on from Honolulu to Samoa, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong and back.

In November, AIC opened a 48,000-square-foot warehouse and office complex at Honolulu Airport. Later that month it began Honolulu-Maui-Big Island service with an all-freight Boeing 727.

With the added aircraft, AIC said it will process an average of 610,000 pounds of cargo a day in Hawaii. The 100 employees in Honolulu handle more than 160 million pounds of cargo a year.

The L-1011 will arrive from the mainland at 10:30 a.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and at 5 a.m. Saturdays.