Weekly Wrap: How many more 747 freighters are there to reactivate?

Charles Kauffman 

Hi everyone and welcome to this episode of Cargo Facts, the newsletter of record for the air cargo in freighter aircraft industries for over 40 years. I’m Charles Kauffman, your host. And this is our weekly wrap for what’s happening in the industry this week. Before we begin, I’d like to thank our sponsors and advertisers Ancra international, AEI, C Cubed Aerospace, EFW and IPR conversions are pleased to be joined today by Jeff Lee, our associate editor, it is March 19 2021. And here are the biggest news items from our editorial team this week, starting with a couple freighter aircraft transactions this week related to the reactivation of some older 747 freighters. I’m not talking 747 400 production freighters but rather a 1991 vintage 747 400 BCF which was acquired by UAE base Aqua line international and a second nose loading 747. Put a 200 variant from the 80s if I’m not mistaken, owned by another UAE based company global service solutions and operated by Moldova-based fly Pro. Jeff with these aircraft coming into service, are we really starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel here with these reactivations.

Jeff Lee 

That’s one way to put it and actually, there was another one. Another one I know craft actually a 400 DSF that Bellamy’s base really saw started buying. And this one was the one that had been stranded in Kazakhstan for a while after being alpha after the demise of cargo global. But yes, this and this continues, the theme of wide body freight is being brought out of storage. And that theme has been we first saw signs of that around Well, a year ago now. And many of these have tended to be older converted treaters. So now we have record numbers record low numbers of parts, freezes, especially when it comes to wide bodies. And FedEx for example. We now know that the delaying the retirement of NZ 10s and distanza. We know the pad expected to stop lying there in the elevens last year, but now they will. They’ll be taking them out this year. The only anomalies I would say that the two Saudia sevens wasn’t dash eight F’s still parked in the desert, and the two China Airlines 7.7 400 freighters that are also in the desert. And so it’s Let’s see whether there is any movement on that front.

Charles Kauffman 

Can you just remind me why those aircraft are still parked?

Jeff Lee 

The Saudi ones less less clear why, but they were the there was earlier friends, and I would guess that they’re asking too much for them. And that’s for the China Airlines sprains. We know that at least one of them. Well, because they’ve been parts for a while they a good amount of engineering and maintenance needs to go into making sure that they’re able to fly again, but I think I think with one of them. Engine issues okay. But overall on the on the theme of sleep growth and previous generation printers, we’re seeing quite a bit of activity in Boeing 737 classics in Southeast Asia, Andre, particularly Indonesia. So just what are some of the highlights?

Charles Kauffman 

So there there are some interesting new startups that we’ve seen in recent months and we’ve also seen some existing carriers move into larger gauge equipment. So this week reported on rim Boone air, which added his first jet freighter at the end of February when it took delivery of the 1993 vintage 737 300 that was previously operated by China postal airlines. renbourn is a carrier that had previously operated turboprops and now they’re moving into two jet freighters. This reminds me A bit of Polina air service, which last year began operating a pair of ATR 72 500 freighters on behalf of Casa Pura logistics and this carrier recently told Carfax that you know, they’re they’re planning on adding adding narrowbody freighters as well. I don’t believe they’ve settled on the equipment type but they’re evaluating both the classics and even the the eight hundreds. We also saw another Prater enter service with the cargo operator this week passenger freighter, I’m sorry, Jeff, I know you’re not a fan of the term Prater. I try Ghana air is preparing to put this reconfigured 737 300 that has had seats removed into service for another Indonesian delivery company j and T Express. And then, you know, there there are a few other carriers in Indonesia. That are they’ve added to to their fleets in the in the past year or so, my endo airlines and then try mgx and they have stated to us that you know in the future fleet growth will likely favor the 737 800 rather than in the classics. But again, nothing is set in stone. And, you know, if we look beyond Indonesia Hopetoun to Malaysia there are a number of other startups restarts restructures and new beginnings for cargo carriers. So, cargo Express is a new startup they’re leasing a 737 400 freighter from Valliere my jet Express with which is affiliated with with my endo airlines. And that’s the similar naming scheme. They’re recently added a 77 400. And then world cargo airlines, which is the the restructured van venture that grew out of you know, what was formerly the, the air arm of POS Malaysia, the Malaysian post. And so they continue to fly this aircraft on behalf of the post and they added 107 800 to their certificate, which is expected to inter service eminently, so quite a lot to to monitor there. That’s just Malaysia and didn’t Indonesia, there are certainly other carriers in the region that, you know, that are exploring narrowbody freighters. And so this is a topic that we’ll be continuing to cover and will certainly come up at cargo effects Asia next month, which is going to be presented as a virtual presentation. You know, so we’re seeing some of these these aircraft. Coming out of fleet, the fleets of, you know, many Chinese operators. What does the pipeline for 77 300 freighters look like in Asia, Jeff?

Jeff Lee 

We know that various carriers in mainland China are 737-300 operators. But we also know that in this past year, some of them have started taking the three hundreds out of their fleets. For example, China postal airlines, which we just talked about, and China’s central long haul airlines, these two have, apart from just taking out 300 staples and taking in 800 to replace those. So as more and more eight hundreds get converted and redeployed, it’s likely that more will be making their way into Mainland China and has a kind of cascading effect. The older three hundreds and four hundreds likely to be taken out. And obviously not all of them will be heading down to Indonesia or Malaysia or Southeast Asia, because for example, we saw what two yto three hundreds making their way to Kinshasa and then I would serve there. So it’s, it’s interesting. And we also know, for example, that subpoena Airlines has a few part 300. So, you know, we’ll see where those go. And considering the number of numbers of eight hundreds that many vessels have on order, it’s it’s it’s quite likely that at least some of them will be joining the The use of China based carriers so and kicking off that replace replacement effects and renewal fee renewal.

Charles Kauffman 

Quite a lot to monitor it will make for an interesting narrowbody freighter fleet analysis when is that coming together by the way this year

Jeff Lee 

is coming together as we speak, and it will be in the next issue of of Cargo Facts.

Charles Kauffman 

Right and looking back at this week, what are some of the other top freighter aircraft transactions for the week.

Jeff Lee 

So of course, it’s not just some pre sevens and seven, four sevens that are in the spotlight because all three to nearly all three types are you know very much in demand these days and USA jet airlines as placed three orders three conversion orders with AI for free MD at freighters. We know that this carrier is has all the DC nines, it’s going to sevens and they use them for time critical movements and automotive shipments. And we know that actually USA jet Airlines has already acquired six mid 80s from from Delta. And so I think they may be exercising those those three options.

Charles Kauffman 

And what’s on tap for next week?

Jeff Lee 

It’s also interesting because it’s now being a full year since the start of passenger freight operations widespread passenger freight operations. So there’s quite a lot to look into when it comes to a by the airlines is still doing it. And in many of them are but we’ll be looking at some of these operations and comparing some numbers across many, many airlines around the world. So it’s pretty interesting.

Charles Kauffman 

Well, thank you for joining us today, Jeff, and those of you watching thank you for joining us for the weekly wrap on cargo facts. For more multimedia content like this, check out Cargofacts.com and search “Cargo Facts Connect” on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you find your podcasts.