US-based lessor Aviation Capital Group (ACG) will structure, arrange and guarantee a senior loan covering part of the purchase price of a 747-8F Boeing is scheduled to deliver to AirBridgeCargo Airlines next month. The transaction is the first made under ACG’s Aircraft Financing Solutions program, the lessor said in a statement today announcing the loan.
While Volga-Dnepr Group announced an order for five additional 747-8Fs at last year’s Farnborough Airshow, that order has not been reflected in Boeing’s order book, leading us at Cargo Facts to suspect that the four 747-8F orders from “Unspecified Customer(s)” that appeared in December could be linked to one or more of the Volga-Dnepr-affiliated carriers – particularly if the carriers are able to arrange other financing deals like the one with ACG.
Despite slowing cargo volume growth reported by ABC for 2018, the Russia-based subsidiary of Volga-Dnepr Group made several moves last year indicating ambitious growth plans ahead. In October, ABC signed a ten-year lease at Liège Airport (LGG), with the carrier committing to invest €25 million to lease 25,000 sq. meters of warehouse space at the airport. The first phase, amounting to 12,500 sq. meters of space, is scheduled to open in June of this year. LGG’s operator, the Walloon Airports Co., is also building four new aircraft stands for ABC’s growing fleet.
Among Volga-Dnepr affiliated airlines, both ABC and United Kingdom-based CargoLogicAir (CLA) operate 747 freighters (ABC operates seven -400Fs and eleven -8Fs, while CLA operates three -400Fs and one -8F). In narrowbody news, CargoLogic Germany, the yet-to-launch scheduled subsidiary carrier of UK-based CargoLogicAir Holding is still awaiting its AOC, but received its first 737-400SF (28867) at Leipzig/Halle Airport (LEJ) yesterday. In the video below, the aircraft lands for fuel at Gander International Airport (YQX) (the now-famous setting of 2017’s Tony-winning Come from Away, for any musical fans among our readers) on its way to LEJ.
