Load it up, and fly it away

With no earthshaking news breaking in the air cargo world today, we thought it a good time to post a couple of videos.

We start with one that shows, from a pilot’s perspective, that getting a big freighter into the air is mostly about waiting. This is one of the Air France-KLM 747-400ERFs operated by subsidiary carrier Martinair, taking on cargo in Bangkok, and then getting airborne on a very wet day.

Showing it also gives us the opportunity to correct, or at least clarify, a comment we made in the weekly Cargo Facts Update late last year. In that issue we looked at the continuing wind-down of operations at Martinair, and noted that following the retirement of the carrier’s three remaining MD-11Fs, AF-KLM would be left with just five freighters – two 777Fs operating out of Paris, and three 747-400ERFs operating out of Amsterdam. However, KLM assures me that there will be a fourth 747, a -400BCF, and that Martinair will continue to operate all four.