Listen: Farnborough Airshow excitement and continued freighter transactions

In this week’s episode of “Cargo Facts Connect,” Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee and Associate Editors Andrew Crider and Robert Luke discuss hype leading up to this year’s Farnborough Airshow in London, which Cargo Facts will be attending to provide breaking news coverage for our readers and listeners. Listen in as the editorial team then discusses the potential for more 777-8F and A350F orders, as well as continued interest in 757s and A330s, both of which saw a number of interesting developments this week. A transcript is available below. This transcript has been generated by software and is being presented as is. Some transcription errors may remain. Andrew Crider Hello and welcome to this episode of cargo facts connect the podcast of cargo facts the newsletter of record for the air cargo and freighter aircraft industries for over 40 years. I'm your host Andrew Crider, associate editor of cargo facts. Robert Luke And I'm Robert Luke, associate editor of cargo facts. Jeff Lee And I am Jeff Lee, editor of cargo facts. Andrew Crider I think it goes without saying that we're going to begin this week by talking about Farnborough. I am very excited it Jeff, isn't this the first air show since the pandemic? Jeff Lee Basically, I mean, it's the first certainly the first worldwide large scale event of its kind. And they I mean, this is great, because we now have the whole basically the whole aviation industry coming back together in what are, you know, interesting, to put it mildly, the times with various economic uncertainties, conflict, and just, you know, all kinds of potential issues affecting the world. And obviously, that all plays into the aviation industry. And so, but I think there is a certain sense of optimism among people involved in the industry. And when it comes to what we cover the freighter market, we, I think we're looking at certainly, more than a few announcements on developments. Andrew Crider i It's always an exciting time, you know, besides the high performance take offs that we get to see and Jeff Lee and I will see in person as we're attending this year's edition of the air show to give our listeners and readers up to date and breaking news coverage from all that air show has to offer. But besides the impressive climb outs, we'll also see some flexing from the major manufacturers. I would assume that the airshow would be a continuation of the saga of what cargo facts consulting refers to as the Battle of equals. That, of course, is the next generation wide body freighter Competition between Airbus A 350 and Boeing, triple seven dash eight. We began this week with a triple seven dash eight order with ana purchasing two of the new freighter type that they hope to enter service in April 2028. That's about in line with the other orders that we've seen with the aircraft. I think that there's still more to come. Jeff, do you? Do you think that there's a 350? We'll have anything in response? Jeff Lee I would certainly hope so. And I wouldn't be surprised. Given the nature of the show, I mean, manufacturers, not just manufacturers, all companies like to have their voices heard at events like this. And I mean, I think we will see something but I mean, we've already had a new order for the A350 Freighter. We don't know who it is, but it turns out in June on June 22, to be exact Airbus logged a firm order for 7 350Fs from an unidentified customer. And, you know, the question we have to ask ourselves is, who is this an identified customer? We know, for example, that in February, Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi signed an LOI for seven A350Fs. So could it be Etihad? Possibly, apart from Etihad? Who else might it be? Seven is an interesting number. And actually speaking of those numbers, it is interesting and I would think this was on purpose, but all of the orders, almost all of the orders are either for seven or for four. And obviously there's some kind of messaging in there about the 350 being a viable replacement for seven four seven freighters. But going back to this Yeah, this order for seven maybe it's could be a customer in Asia. We don't know seven is not an insignificant amount. Andrew Crider Well if you have any information on what those seven are simply a good guess I want to encourage you to email me at a cri de r at Royal media.com And if you're right I'll go ahead and buy you Would Guinness at the closest pub to the Waterloo train station next week. I want to turn it to Robert Luke Now, Robert, we're not just talking about next generation freighters but everyone's favorite classic narrowbody Robert Luke Yes, that is true Andrew and apart from me having 757 reasons filled with envy as to you guys going over to Farnborough this week. The 757 freighter continues to defy father time, with a few carriers deciding to keep the battle tested narrowbody freighter operational this week, Swiftair confirmed it plans to add 1 757 200 F to its fleet with an option for two more and cargo jet expanded at 757 200 PCF portfolio by adding two with one unit to six to five, one being the youngest 757 and its fleet now. A few hours past the international dateline Guam based Asia Pacific airlines reduced the average age of its fleet when it too acquired its youngest 757 and Ferried the 99 Vintage 757 200 to Avocet and Sanford Orlando for conversion with precision. And in closing, before turning it back over to you. I hope you guys take lots of pictures and have great fun and also keep an eye out for the drones that may be displaying some more new features or some new ones to unveil themselves as well. And keep in mind that there may be some more experimental freighters that may be coming across the deck also. Andrew Crider Yeah, I'm happy you mentioned drones because Elroy air has always been very nice to just share us with their information that they have today. They came up with a big press release for a loi for 100 of their drones from the Bristow group. Now this is interesting to me because Bristow, they, they specialize in vertical takeoff and landing. And what that essentially translates into is they help helicopters transition into from oil rigs, deliver medicine, stuff like that. This is going to be there first dedicated cargo aircraft and it's a drone. And I think that's a sign of things to come. I'm not exactly sure at this time when Bristow will receive all 100 units, but Elroy want, the manufacturer wants to kickstart deliveries by 2024. That's going to be with their chaparral C one which was announced in January 2022 cargo facts covered that that's a hybrid electric drone with 150 kilowatt turboshaft engine. I think the design is very interesting here because one, this is the middle mile drones go from warehouse to warehouse and not exactly get into the last mile challenges, which, as we know, the other drones have run into a lot of difficulties to find their use case scenario or to tackle all the technological challenges of urban flying. Elroy doesn't have to necessarily deal deal with that. So I think that this is an exciting and forthcoming technology for us to continue to closely monitor. But as far as technologies to closely monitor. Jeff, I believe you've been closely monitoring a myriad of Airbus medium wide body conversions. Jeff Lee Yes, I was gonna say Do you know what else is happening in 2024? It's this story about aircraft finance Germany, buying an A330 200, a single a330 200 from CMA CGM. Now, aircraft finance Germany tells us that it expects to send this aircraft to EFW in Germany for conversion in early 2024. But what's interesting about this is that we actually reported on this earlier. Well, not this, but about CMA CGM acquiring the aircraft. And at the time, they told us that they intended to initially take out the seats, reconfigure it for cargo use as a passenger freighter, and then eventually convert it into a full freighter. That, to me always seemed like it would be slightly I mean, this would then make this particular aircraft the odd one out in the fleet, because they have four production A330 200FS. They now have to triple sevens with two more on the way and of course they've got the 350 freighters on the way so at some point, they decided not to pursue this. So now we'll see AFG, you know entering this Airbus medium widebody freighter space with this single unit and they might be looking to do more depending on the on the how the market is and whether they can get their hands on on more slots because as we know those are hard to come by now. And the earliest I think they said that they were offered was either 2025 or even 2026. But again, this is just, you know, more freighters more lessors entering the medium widebodies, and specifically the 330 conversion space. So EFW has its hands very full, but these conversions Andrew Crider just a reminder, if you ever find yourself applying for a job at Cargo facts both for Robert and I our trial by fire our hazing was to learn how to spell elbe flugzeugwerke completely without any reference to online material. Very quick. It's an easy word once you get the hang of it. That's all the time we have for today. To those of you listening, thank you for tuning in to this episode of cargo facts Connect. For more multimedia content like this, check out cargo facts.com and search cargo facts connect on iTunes and Spotify. Join us again next time. Subscribe to Cargo Facts Connect on iTunes or Spotify , or download the episode on Transistor .

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