Atlas Air purchases three more leased 747-400Fs

Atlas Air purchased three additional 747-400Fs in October, citing confidence in the demand for widebody freighters. New-York based Atlas — which made the announcement today during its third-quarter earnings call — confirmed to Cargo Facts that the three aircraft are units 30607, 30608 and 30609, built in 2000, 2001 and 2002, respectively, adding to units 29261, 33515 and 33517, which the airline acquired between May and August 2021. [caption id="attachment_416917" align="alignright" width="560"] Atlas Air is growing its owned 747-400F fleet. Photo/Atlas[/caption] The company announced earlier this year that it would purchase eight of its leased 747-400Fs . As for the four new 747-8Fs the airline ordered from Boeing earlier this year, delivery is still set to begin in 2022. “We expect to take delivery of these -8Fs between May and October of next year,” Atlas Air Worldwide CEO John Dietrich told analysts during the earnings call. With the group fleet substantially made up of Boeing widebody freighters, including the 767F, 747F and 777F, Atlas isn’t ignoring the Airbus platform, Dietrich said. “All options are on the table. We’re not certainly ruling out an Airbus product. Our view has been we would want to be sure we have sufficient scale to go into any new aircraft type,” he said. Atlas also signed a new long-term ACMI agreement with express carrier FedEx as it continues to focus on the express e-commerce and growing global markets in Asia and South America. Following the completion of a joint collective bargaining agreement with its pilots last quarter, Atlas now expects the merger with Kentucky-based Southern Air to close in the fourth quarter of this year. “The Southern Air brand has served us well since we acquired it in 2016,” Dietrich said. “Through Southern we diversified our service offerings by gaining immediate entry into the 777 and 737 platforms, ultimately enabling us to perform 777 flying for DHL Express and Cainiao, the logistics arm of Alibaba, as well as 737 operations for Amazon.” Looking forward, the company expects industry conditions and demand to remain favorable to widebody freighters for the foreseeable future and for capacity on long-haul trade lanes to remain tight. Returning to Atlas Air’s Q3 earnings, the group’s continued focus on express, e-commerce and the global markets in Asia pushed quarterly revenue above $1 billion for the first time. Net income rose to $119.5 million year over year in the quarter compared with $74.1 million in Q3 of 2020. Shares of Atlas Air [Nasdaq: AAWW ] were trading at $ 88.31 as of market close today, up 0.14% from market open.

Atlas Air purchases three more leased 747-400Fs

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