Listen: A week of widebody freighter developments

In this week’s episode of Cargo Facts Connect, Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee and Associate Editors Andrew Crider and Robert Luke discuss the breaking news of Atlas Air’s acquisition by Apollo Global Management and others. Besides Atlas, the team looks at other developments involving major operators or large widebody freighters, including UPS holding two more options for the venerable 747-8F and Air Canada ordering the 777F. 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 Carter, associate editor of cargo facts. Biggest news this week by far would have to be Apollo and the acquisition of Atlas for a record $2.9 billion. The Atlas fleet just shy of 90 aircraft composed of 74 sevens, triple 7 76 sevens. And correct me if I'm wrong, Jeff 737s as well. What is billions of dollars worth of aircraft? Something that's truly remarkable. To see we have exclusive content on cargo fx.com That to provide you more in depth detail about the freighter aircraft involved in the deal and the pricing of these models. But that wasn't the only breaking news item involving a major cargo carrier. Was that Rob? Robert Luke No, but just reflecting back on Atlas 2.9 billion. Wow, can you spare brother a couple of dollars. I mean, really. Moving forward UPS recently demonstrated his desire to increase his fleet. When it released its form 8q for the second quarter reporting. And it indicated they had an option for two additional 747 Dash eight s. Now wait a minute. Jeff and I were discussing this earlier, my memory serves me correct. They said in 2020 that they were not interested in adding in additional options as they had solidified their orders their final remaining 12 And just recently took their 28 delivery earlier this year. So that's a quite a turn of events there as we now look forward to see where they're going to get those aircraft options from considering Boeing will not be producing any more after it delivers its final 747 Dash eight F two at Atlas who just recently got purchased by Apollo. Moving forward on the next subject matter of news at hand. Camex has now officially become the third freighter operator to operate 7378 hundreds out of the Georgian airspace as they recently got their AOC certified so congratulations to them as they move forward into our freighter operations. And in other interesting news, Air Canada has surprised us once again making headlines by placing orders for two new triple seven Fs which my colleague Jeff, who is the head editor of our esteemed cargo Facts publishing will go ahead to provide more details. Jeff Lee Yeah, I mean, I think we were pretty surprised to see this. And I do and it's it's really impressive to see all this growth. And actually, interestingly, it's not just Canada because its fellow Canadian carrier cargo jet is also undergoing, you know, an unprecedented phase of growth and expansion. But going back to Air Canada first. Yeah, they ordered two new triple seven freighters from Boeing, the existing triple sevens. And of course, they are already in the process of expanding their 767 freighter fleet. They now have to on these from cargo aircraft management. But they've also started converting their own seven, six sevens from their passenger fleet. And so obviously, they have a larger international aspirations for these triple sevens. But we, you know, we do have to wonder whether they're looking, you know, from medium wide bodies, they went to large wide bodies, but what about the other direction now they possibly also looking at smaller freighters as well. We'll see. But this again, is just generally Canada has been releasing its carriers growing the reader portions of their feeds. And like I was saying earlier cargo jet, as we know is doing triple seven, three hundreds and 200 conversions of those, it continues to take more 757 and 767 conversions. So you know, and then there are a couple of other carriers in Canada with turboprops and other regional freighters. So it is just an unprecedented phase of freighter growth for Canada. But staying on the subject of large wide bodies, we got confirmation that UAE based Etihad Airways was behind the and previously unidentified firm order for seven a350 Freighters. And I mean, I think we, we did say that he had was one likely candidate for that order. And I think it's because etihad is, is growing its passenger a350 feet. And it's they want you, we don't know whether they are using these to replace all of their triple seven freighters. But, you know, in any case, it's good to see them growing their freighter fleet again after having removed some 330s one triple seven but of course Damn these will come, you know at least 2027 or 28. So it's still good nonetheless and good win another good win for for Airbus. Andrew Crider If it's a reflection of growing confidence in the market didn't They also suggest on the passenger side which I'm a cargo facts journalist? I wouldn't I don't know too much about the passenger market here. But they also add restarting passenger service for their a 380. Robert Luke Well, I'm not certain of that. But what I will say is we've been witnessing a lot of big aircraft coming back into the fold. So like the magnet like the publishing cargo fax itself, you know, you gotta go big. That's how we do over here in the air freight industry. Andrew Crider Certainly, I mean, we're always forward looking. And this is a sentiment that was first discussed at Cargo facts consulting with our freighter outlook at EMEA. But we more and more when you look into the years ahead, you're seeing more demand for these wide body aircraft. We're always tracking these orders. But in the immediate short term, we have couple of narrow body deliveries that I'm I'm really excited for. I know I'm keeping track for Merx aviation, which should receive a 737 800 having been converted by AEI and I'm excited to see that was I was I was scheduled for August and we hope to see movement on that in the next coming days or weeks. The same to be said for Indigo, the A 321. Jeff correct me if I'm wrong. This would be their first freighter aircraft, or a first a 321? Jeff Lee Yes. Because yes, they would be the first freighter aircraft with Indigo. And that's incredibly exciting. Again, yet another passenger airline expanding into freighters and within the 321 that that so, you know, it's interesting, I worked more travel. Yes, because, yeah, I was gonna say we've done a couple of stories recently on India as a whole. And yeah, we're seeing quite a bit of freighter growth there as well. So, Robert Luke you know, that really is kind of reflective of how strong the market outlook is, for the next couple of years, seeing how the majority of the carriers or a passenger passenger side of operations were cutting back on their quad engine wide bodies just to kind of give the twin engine operations more priority. So you know, of course, that was going to reduce the belly freight capacity. But with these carriers now coming into the operation with their own variances just really clearly seeing that there is going to be a need for low sustainability as far as moving cargo in the near future. So it looks really, really strong from that from that outlook. Andrew Crider We can only hope and see and report. And when we report. If you follow us on cargo facts.com You'll be the first to read it. And with that, I want to say that that's all the time that 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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