DHL to grow Central Airlines CMI 777F operation

DHL Express is expanding its CMI arrangement with China’s Central Airlines and will assign two more production Boeing 777 freighters to the carrier for that purpose. Both aircraft will be transferred from DHL Air UK. The deal builds on the integrator’s investment in its Chinese network, which includes the recent expansion of its Shenzhen (SZX) Super Gateway, Travis Cobb, executive vice president of global network operations and aviation for DHL Express, told Cargo Facts . [caption id="attachment_57299044" align="aligncenter" width="1157"] DHL assigned two 777Fs to Central Airlines in 2024. (Courtesy/Leipzig/Halle Airport)[/caption] The SZX Super Gateway, estimated to cost about $204 million, is DHL’s largest investment in mainland China, the integrator said in an Aug. 11 release. Expansion of the now 237,000-square-foot facility nearly tripled throughput capacity to about 900 tonnes daily. One of the DHL Air UK aircraft is the 2011-vintage MSN 37717, which, according to flight tracking data, on Sept. 2 flew from Cincinnati (CVG) to Haikou (HAK), where Central Airlines is headquartered. It was photographed in HAK on Sept. 7 sporting a hybrid DHL and Central Airlines livery along with its new Chinese registration (B-22AE). The aircraft is still in Haikou as of publication time. It is unclear which other DHL Air UK 777F — of the six airframes in its fleet — will be reassigned to Central Airlines. Central is DHL’s newest CMI 777F operator, having started flying two of DHL’s 777Fs (MSN 66079 and MSN 66080) in 2024. Those two units were also previously in the DHL Air UK fleet. In addition to its production 777Fs, DHL is expanding its fleet with 777 conversions. It expects its newly acquired 777-200LRMF (MSN 32222) — which was displayed at the Farnborough Airshow in July and delivered to Jetran in August — to start flying with DHL Air UK in the coming weeks, Cobb said. That freighter completed conversion at the STS Aviation Services facility in Manchester (MAN), England, this year. It will be followed by three additional 777-200LMRFs , also to be assigned to DHL Air UK, he added. DHL has taken delivery of twenty-eight 777Fs from Boeing since 2019 and assigned them to five CMI operators: AeroLogic, which operates fourteen; Singapore Airlines, which operates five; Kalitta Air, which operates four; DHL Air UK, which operates three; and Central Airlines, which operates two. DHL also has five 777Fs that were not direct deliveries from Boeing: three with DHL Air UK and two with Polar Air Cargo. Meanwhile, Central Airlines also expects to continue growing its widebody freighter fleet , , particularly with 777 freighter operations, but may not receive its next airframe until 2027, a spokesperson for the carrier told Cargo Facts . Excluding MSN 37717, Central Airlines’ fleet includes five 777Fs and four 737-800BCFs. The carrier removed the final of three 737-300Fs from its fleet in January and sold that 1993-vintage unit (MSN 25998) to Aircraft Finance Germany. Cargo Facts Symposium 2026, the premier event for the freighter aircraft and air cargo industries, will take place in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 21-23. Find out more and register today .

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