Watch: 747s and passenger aircraft pulled into cargo service

For the week ended June 18, Cargo Facts revisited the status of some of the 747-400 freighters being returned to service . With few 747-400 freighters — factory-built or converted — available on the market, operators are now pulling “mixed-configuration” passenger and Combi widebodies into long-haul cargo operations. In this Cargo Facts Weekly Wrap, Senior Editor Charles Kauffman and Associate Editor Jeff Lee discuss routes that are still favorable to cargo-only operations with equipment other than a purpose-built or converted freighter. On the narrowbody front, the pair discusses the demand for 757-200 conversions, following a four-unit 757-200 freighter conversion order from BlackRock . A transcript is available below. This transcript has been generated by software and is being presented as is. Some transcription errors may remain. Charles Kauffman Hello and welcome to this episode of cargo facts connect the podcast and video series of cargo facts, the newsletter of record for the air cargo and freighter aircraft industries for over 40 years. I'm Charles Kauffman, Senior Editor of cargo facts. Jeff Lee And I'm Jeff Lee, Associate Editor of Cargo Facts. Charles Kauffman Special thanks to our sponsors and advertisers. It's Monday, June 21. And this is our weekly wrap for the week ending June 18. four episodes ago, we looked at a number of 747 freighters being reactivated plus the imminent induction of what could replace some of those seven, four sevens. The first triple seven 300 ersF. Jeff that first triple seven 300 er has been inducted by AI in Tel Aviv. And a few of those seven four sevens earmarked for reactivation have taken to the sick guys again. Last week, your reporting uncovered an ACT airlines 747 400 production freighter that reentered service after a tail strike and left it out of service nearly one year ago, so tough time to be out of service for production freighter, but that one is now back in the skies. That is a production freighter. We are still seeing some cargo carriers reactivate some mixed configuration equipment for both the 747 and the triple seven platform. And that was a topic that surfaced multiple occasions in like in recent weeks. And last week, what is the profile of some of the 747 slated to enter service with cargo carriers. Jeff Lee It's pretty interesting because it's really a range of various types of 747 four hundreds, and obviously some of those full freighters. But the older converted freighters. They've been in storage for a while, and a few of them are nearing 30 years in age. But there are a few interesting exceptions. The most obvious ones the to China Airlines production 400 freighters that have been stored for almost 10 years. But those we know that those are probably coming back into service at some point. That's when any new head of cargo told us recently. Another interesting section is the super tanker, seven four seven 400 freighter that's actually a converted freighter that is that had served in firefighting duties for a while but it's now being restored to a freighter configuration for national airlines. And then Apart from that, we know that there are a few passenger or combi 7474 hundreds that are being re activated for and will be joining the longtail aviation theme. We think those are owned by a company called jet 1x. And the first one is either nearing or the media will be answering services very, very soon. There was a an Extra Virgin Atlantic 7400. But the other two KLM combis that we think will also be joining Longtail. This soon says it's like I said it's a really interesting mix of seven four sevens. Charles Kauffman Yeah, definitely trying the the supertanker into the mix. That's not something that we expected to see reconfigured as a freighter after the converted to Super tanker configuration. But we've also seen at least one startup carrier take a triple seven passenger aircraft and their plans coming together to put that into cargo service as well. Can you tell us a bit more about that? Jeff Lee Yeah, this company is called Alis Cargo in Italy and they are Waiting the AoC as well as an STC approval for the reconfiguration that they've made to to 20 year old triple seven 200 ers. We it's pretty interesting because their management has experienced with my freezer experience, I've worked with cargo Luxe cargo Vitaly as Silk Way and Qatar Airways. And he was they tell us that they haven't made a firm decision on freighters yet. But we can say that they would have to decide soon because the market isn't going to support these passenger freight and reconfigure passenger freighters forever. And the other thing is that there are slot constraints as we know for printer convergence, so and they may end up not thinking very different versions. But in any case, they will have to decide soon. The other interesting thing is that they have gone for triple triples in 200 years, which is the well as opposed to 300 years, which either overwhelmingly the most popular type for these passenger foods and the configurations. And there are they've been about more than 60 actually. Whereas for the 200 they've only been about 10. But maybe it was the down to a matter of price or availability. We don't know. But yeah, interesting nonetheless. Charles Kauffman So going back to the economics of operating some of these mixed configuration aircraft in in cargo configuration, or at least using them to carry cargo. You know that that does raise the question of, you know, how long will be the economics workout for these types of cargo only flights without freighter equipment or without the optimal freighter equipment. Her sister publication Air Cargo world published a story that looked at the Transatlantic Trade lane in particular and the decline in cargo only flights operated with passenger equipment. You know, particularly as international passenger flights have resumed. This isn't the case on a universal basis that international passenger flights are returning at the same clip on which routes or trade lanes are these types of passenger freighters are mixed configuration operation still possible. Jeff Lee It's definitely not the case universally. And we keep saying that. They've gone on for longer than we originally thought. But do you know, even now in June 2021, they are still happening. And in fact, apart from the transatlantic market. Not only is it still sensible, it's actually still, I guess, so critical, critically important for many other markets, especially in Asia, Middle East, for example. And these carriers in these regions still operate significant numbers of cargo only flights with reconfigured passenger aircraft. And one interesting exception actually to North America is Canada, they actually still have seven triple seven 300,005 and 630 300. operating a fairly substantial cargo only network. And this may speak to the cargo ambitions because we know they'll be entering the full freighter market with 767 conversions later this year. And they're probably building up market share and customer base. But generally, you know, overall, there are still we actually looked at this fairly recently. Last week, in fact, and there are still we think there are there also were over 100 active passenger aircraft that have been reconfigured that are flying cargo. And that's leaving aside all the other non reconfigured aircraft that are still flying with barely only cargo loaded on seats. So no, it's still fairly widespread, I'd say apart from the transatlantic market, but even in that trade line, we are still seeing these kinds of operations just to a lesser extent then then a few months ago. Charles Kauffman That is that is certainly interesting. And even as, as there's a bit of a transatlantic slowdown in with these types of operations, it's important to recognize that and they continue They continue elsewhere. So that's not the end of the story yet. But certainly we do expect at some point, the economics will no longer make sense not going to try and predict when that date will arrive. But it but it's, it's on the horizon eventually. In the meantime, I mean, are we going to see these? These these can't be 747 commies and the passenger aircraft, you know, removed from service as soon as those those economics no longer favor the cargo operations with this this type of equipment or is there is there an opportunity to further convert or reconfigure those? Jeff Lee Well, we don't know. But I think with the 747. It's a possibility. And we had hints of that happening when we talk to, to the people involved. And certainly for the Congress, it could be less of an effort to convert them to full freighters. And keep in mind, those can be some very old so that, you know, could make sense in the long run. As for the triple sevens, we don't know yet. We'll have to see you know whether there are additional triple seven conversion programs in the works, but for now, we'll just have to see. And, you know, moving down the scale a bit. We see that BlackRock is making a move on 757 versions, which is both interesting and significant, isn't it? Charles Kauffman Yep, certainly. So these will be the first 757 conversions for BlackRock aviation Fund. The there was an order for for with precision aircraft solutions, which owns the STC to convert that type. BlackRock is not new to freighter operations, they've owned seven for seven production freighters in the past, but in the past 12 months or so there, there really has been a focus on freighters and the narrowbody conversion segment in particular. So they started a project to convert a 7378 hundreds with AI with the AI STC. And although BlackRock is is not completely new to the seven by seven platform, they actually had owned a 757 production freighter. Yeah, this is this is a new development of course, the 757 conversion is is is involved seven is larger than than the 737 800. So this order certainly demonstrates the continued strong demand for this older type. And if I had to you know, speak to their rationale a bit BlackRock has been in the market actively marketing the V 737 800 conversions. And so those were all taken on a speculative basis without an operator lined up. And you know, I can imagine the realization that many of the carriers, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, where the aircraft is still popular with Express carriers, many of which continue to grow their fleets. So the yto Express is SF airlines and, and some other carriers as well in Russia and elsewhere. continue to grow this this fleet segment. Another possible factor could be that compared to the 737 800, which we typically think of as a replacement type for the 77 Classic freighters. It's still early days for what could play out to be the successor to 2757 freighters, which is the VA 321. And even though there are two active programs, this is still a relatively recent development, conversion slots remain limited. And of course, VFW and 3g one precision conversions. The two companies involved are v2 STC holders, they're working to increase capacity and add conversion slots. But this doesn't happen overnight. So it is going to take some time. We saw this with the 737 800 as well. There was a slow ramp up and now look at how many are are being re delivered on a on a monthly basis. It's You know, that program has really ramped up. So even as an established program 757 freighter remains popular with existing operators, and even new operators as well. You wrote a story on a marriage app preparing for its first 757 200. This is a new fleet type for the 767. operator. And in emergency case, they apparently have five more on the way. Astro aviation is another newcomer to the type. They're adding their first with their plan, Jad their first seven, five sevens as early as late of this year. So they're still they're still happening with that program. Jeff Lee There certainly is interesting to see it's still joining new operators, especially, you know, both and marriage and astral have operated 767 and there is a there's space in the market for a narrowbody like the 757 so we'll see especially Astro. We think we have an idea where those might be coming from but we will see. That's all for today. Thank you for tuning into this episode of Cargo facts Connect. For more multimedia content like this, check out cargofacts.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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