Listen: Twin widebody freighters take off

There was significant traction in the industry this week outside of the red-hot narrowbody sector, particularly with regard to widebody freighters and conversions. In this episode of “Cargo Facts Connect,” Cargo Facts Deputy Editor Jeff Lee and Associate Editors Andrew Crider and Robert Luke discuss several of the week’s news items, including Icelandair’s first 767-300BCF preparing for conversion with the second one to follow later in May, and firm orders for three 777-300ERCF conversions announced at this week’s MRO Americas event in Dallas. The editors also look ahead to leads they will be exploring next week, including the Cessna SkyCourier 408 and more 737-800F developments. 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 I'd like to turn to our newest Associate Editor, Robert Luke. Robert. Hello, thank you for joining us. It's been a busy week for widebodies, hasn't it? Robert Luke Yes. Thanks for having me. Sorry for interrupting. Yeah, it's been a busy week. And thank you for again, giving me the opportunity to speak. Air Canada, is purchasing two new builds 767 300 freighters from Boeing. And will take delivery of them soon. And in May, in fact, I believe yes. Now, that timeline is very curious, and we're wondering what the source of these aircraft is. Air Canada confirmed to us that the new direct order that they placed with Boeing in the first quarter of 2022, but these two new freighters will have to undergo some Mod modifications and will only begin service in 2023. At the same time, Air Canada already has 2 767 300BDSF's flying in his having more of the 767 300 ers converted with iai. Andrew Crider That's very interesting. We know that they received their first 767 At the end of 2021. That was the restart of their own freighter operations taking advantage of the feedstock aircraft from their own mainline and Rouge aircraft Robert Luke Andrew guess what else, Icelandair will also begin the conversion of its first 767 300 BCF next month, this will be Icelandair's first wide body conversion that will be introduced to the fleet. The carrier expects to add the second Boeing 767 300 BCF will conversion at the end of May. Andrew Crider That's fantastic news. Moving up in size, didn't we hear more about a new triple seven conversion order this week, Jeff Jeff Lee We did so now we have the launch customer customer revealed for the Kansas modification center triple seven 300ercf conversion. And it appears the launch order for three conversions is from something called backbone freighter leasing. And that is actually a company that is affiliated with Dr. Peters group in Germany. This order was for three conversions and they have options for seven more. And so this first aircraft under this deal is actually the first aircraft that arrived in Wichita last year. They've already started working on it, doing various tests things and they carried out the first kind of pre conversion test flights just this week. And that program expects certification in 2024. And they're working on it together with the Wichita State University's National Institute of aviation research. And everything is most almost everything is being manufactured in the surrounding area. And one interesting aspect about this particular conversion is that the cargo door is located forward of the wings and legs, the other two triple seven conversion programs that we know of. But now all three, triple seven conversion programs have made the launch order announcements. And so you know, we'll continue to see more of these conversion orders coming in. And, you know, it'll be interesting to see how operators decide between the three different STCs Andrew Crider we here at cargo facts we like to deliver big for our readers and listeners, so to put the cherry on top for even larger aircraft size in the ultra sized category of aircraft. We heard two weeks ago from a press release released by United Aircraft Corporation in Russia saying that they were on the verge of restarting production of the Soviet era design Ilyushin 76 freighter Volga Dnepr currently operates in il 76 that we heard from Volga dnepr. After repeatedly reaching out to them asking about how the recent sanctions and in response to the war in Ukraine have affected their operations. haven't been able to hear much back however, they were able to confirm that they put a lot of effort into upgrading their il 76 freighter to make it more modern and eco friendly and that the Volga Dnepr group was interested in expanding his current fleet and complementing it with additional Ilyushin aircraft. They're looking at all possible variants. So there's a lot to look forward to. And, Jeff, what else might we look forward to next week? Jeff Lee Well, I can only say that we are looking at the FedEx skycourier and looking at the various operators that they'll place those aircraft with. And of course, we're looking at a few 737 800 items, which we didn't talk about this week, interestingly. Andrew Crider Well, thank goodness, I was starting to get tired of reporting about 737 8 Hundreds Robert Luke How could you get tired of 737 8 Hundreds? Andrew Crider Well, that's all the time we have for today. For those of you listening, thank you for tuning in to this episode of cargo fax Connect. For more multimedia content like this, check out cargo facts.com 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 . Cargo Facts EMEA will take place LIVE May 9-11 in Dubai. Learn more and register.

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