Listen: European carriers reshape freighter fleets

This week saw at least one new 737-800F addition to the European freighter fleet, with Compass Air Cargo’s second 737-800SF , and at least one 737 Classic leaving the continent, with an ASL 737-400SF heading to New Zealand. Meanwhile, Poland-based SkyTaxi is set to expand its widebody fleet with A330 conversions . In this episode of “Cargo Facts Connect,” Cargo Facts Deputy Editor Jeff Lee and Associate Editor Andrew Crider discuss 737 fleet developments in Asia and Europe before turning to look at the continued shakeup of the medium-widebody fleet. 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. Jeff Lee And I'm Jeff Lee, deputy editor of cargo facts. Andrew Crider It seems like a motif that we are tracking down aircraft more and more as they move from lessor to operator to operator to lessor. This week, we've been tracking down ASL France's 737 400 F, which is moved its way from Europe to Asia. The aircraft has departed france and will soon arrive in the registry of New Zealand for a new carrier, Jeff and I certainly have our suspicions. But this isn't the only 737 edition for an asian carrier. Is this, Jeff? Jeff Lee No, it's not. Because once again, we have been looking at 7378 Hundreds. And no surprise that we are seeing new carriers entering the 737 800 freighter market. And this particular week, we looked at a freshly converted 737 800 BCF that we believe will be joining central airlines in China. Now this aircraft belongs to bbam. And at the end of March, it carried out a test flight under the callsign of central airlines in China. And that's pretty interesting, because central airlines right now has 5 737 Classics, three hundreds. And we know that the airline's ambition is to grow this year by I think another five. And it wouldn't be surprising if all five of these additions were NGS, specifically eight hundreds. And, you know, this would be the latest carrier in China to start operating 737 800 freighters and interestingly, all of the eight hundreds in China. Currently BCFs. Andrew Crider Now bbam is very interesting as a lessor because they're not only about the 737 800 or 737 platform in general, they've also become EF W's largest a321 customer, we at cargo facts, we're going to be connecting with BBAM in the upcoming months to find out more information about their strategy, because it's certainly unique among lessors, during this time. With all this attention on narrow bodies, and as far as 737 production, I can't help but wonder, was there any a 330 activity this week, Jeff? Jeff Lee Well let me just say a quick word about bbam. As far as we know, they are still the only lessor with both a321 and 737 800 conversions. And they are supplying a pair to Lufthansa. Of course, we as we know they provide two units to Titan airways in the UK. And they have, as you quite rightly said they have a pretty large order book for their conversions with EFW. And I mean, we certainly looking forward to seeing where these conversions end up. I'm sure there'll be some new and interesting customers on the way in the coming months. But speaking of a330s. We just did a very interesting story, didn't we about sky taxi in Poland. And now this carrier is basically a contract carrier of DHL. And it's currently got 2 767 two hundreds. And those are I believe around well more than 30 years old around 35. And we saw basically a recruitment notice advertising for engineers and mechanics trained on the 330s. And so we talked to sky taxi. And sure enough, this airline is now looking at Airbus medium widebodies to basically refresh its fleet and we now know that they've actually signed a commitment for 4 a3 3300 P2Fs with cargo aircraft management, cargo aircraft management, of course, recently topped up, its a 330 conversion orders with the EFW and has already signed six of those aircraft to smartlynx. Andrew Crider You're bringing up a a Polish carrier who is expanding rather rapidly on a 330. Now we've spoken to ATSG and Cam, and as well as are from the cockpit with Cronon about the popularity of the a 330, I think is a timely question to wonder how much this sanctions and closure of airspace in Eastern Europe go into their thinking? I believe they mentioned that they're looking for destinations in the Far East, as they put it, as well as connecting North America, given they comment on their the complexity of the short term versus long term demand, Jeff? Jeff Lee Yes, I mean, it's interesting that they are looking expanding further into the Asia Pacific region and North America. And you know, first of all, I wouldn't be surprised if they were operating those for DHL as well. But the whole Russia situation, I mean, Sky taxi told us that, while that is a concern, at least in the immediate short term, they're actually looking beyond that. And basically, this is a, I guess, a structural change in the market. And they are still confident about the long term prospects for air cargo and for maindeck freighters. And I mean, we've talked to many people haven't we that, basically agree on this point that ecommerce and express growth. I mean, we've seen in the past year that the changes and additions and expansions that various operators have made based on this, report this growth. And one other point about this development is that sky taxi is isn't actually replacing its seven, six sevens. It's adding a330s to its seven, six sevens. And that is an interesting point because yes, it's the consensus is that a330s eventually will. And in some cases have started replacing seven, six sevens. But, you know, Sky taxi aside, we know mass air in Mexico is also doing the same thing. They're adding A330s, they just recently just started operating Airbus medium widebodies their first a330 200 They have a second one that's in Dresden, I think that's probably going to head down to Mexico soon, they've got two A330 300 P2Fs, that they're going to lease from CDB aviation. And we talked to them recently, didn't we? And they said that they're going to continue expanding the medium wide body segment. And rather interestingly, it's going to be a mix of Boeing seven six sevens and Airbus 330s. So, I mean, yeah, not many carriers are doing this. But you know, it is interesting. Andrew Crider And in closing, it's hard to mention medium wide bodies without discussing the actual narrow body losses that we've occurred in the last month, both in the passenger are 737 that was lost in China, and most recently yesterday 757 That was, let's say written off on landing, operating for DHL aero express in Costa Rica. As cargo facts, we're closely monitoring the developments of this story we understand that aircraft accident investigations are very careful process or looking for key points of data from accident investigators before we comment further. However, our thoughts and prayers are with the crew of this aircraft and we congratulate them on what certainly was an eventful flight. Until next time, that's it for cargo facts Connect. If you want more content like this search for cargo facts connect on iTunes and Spotify. And join us again next time. Subscribe to Cargo Facts Connect on iTunes or Spotify , or download the episode on Transistor . 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