Listen: 767F redeliveries surge in last quarter

The fourth quarter is a popular time for cargo carriers to grow their freighter fleets and this year is no exception, with jet freighters of all size categories set to enter service in the coming weeks. Just in time for the holiday e-commerce and express onslaught, 767 freighter activity is on the rise. In this episode of “Cargo Facts Connect,” Senior Editor Charles Kauffman and Deputy Editor Jeff Lee look at recent additions to the Amazon Air fleet and discuss the status of 767 freighter-introduction plans that are underway at Air Canada and YTO Cargo Airlines. The duo also takes a look at some upcoming redeliveries of A321 family and 757 freighter conversions. A transcript is available below. This transcript has been generated by software and is being presented as is. Some transcription errors may remain. Charles Kauffman 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, Charles Kauffman, senior editor of cargo facts. Jeff Lee And I'm Jeff Lee, deputy editor of cargo facts. Charles Kauffman To those of you tuning in thank you for joining us. Now, Jeff, we've arrived at the final month of 2021. Somehow it's December. I think I've probably started off a few podcasts this year with that phrase, because, once again, I'm surprised by how quickly time has passed. But looking back at the stories from this week, you know, I'm reminded of the fact that in past years, we've seen freighter deliveries and read deliveries stacked towards the end of the year. Jeff Lee Yeah, well, first, I think it's surprising everyone that we're in the final month of 2021. But yes, it does make sense. And it's not surprising, I guess, that carriers and operators are taking deliveries and redeliveries more toward the end of the year, but actually, that happens towards the end of every quarter as well, in a way but yeah, we have seen airlines, taking more capacity. And then putting that to use during the traditional year end. peak season peak period for shopping ecommerce, and just general cargo demand to but and we even seen multiple deliveries on the same day. And some airlines have a tendency to do that more than others. I mean, for example, last year, we saw in the final months, we saw obviously a surge in new build freighter deliveries from Boeing, but particularly noteworthy was a triple, triple seven, triple triple seven, three to delivery to Qatar Airways on the final day of the year. And that actually marked Boeing's 200 triple seven F overall. So that was a bit of a milestone moment, but this year, I expect I mean, we may not quite see you know, triple aircraft delivery. But we I think we will see a few more 767 300 F's and one or two more triple sevens heading off before the year ends and maybe another seven four seven eight for UPS too Charles Kauffman Yeah, that's a good point. Not quite what we saw last year, that's for sure. But yeah, production freighters have deliveries have had really been more staggered this year. And first 2020 was something of an exception in many ways. Now, freighter re deliveries are perhaps going to pick up a bit, especially based on the number of aircraft inducted at mros Around the World in recent months. I do expect we'll see a decent mix of freighter types redelivered in the coming weeks. Looking back at the past week, however, we've seen a high volume of 767 freighter activity. Much of that is a reflection of re deliveries to Amazon and on behalf of Amazon, but can you walk us through that a bit how many aircraft are going to Amazon in these final weeks of the year? Jeff Lee Well, of course the thing about Amazon is that it's both leasing 767 300 freighters from cargo aircraft management and it's also converting its own 767 300 with iai. So I mean for example, in November they took one from cam but cam has also just taken delivery of another one for Amazon and expect that to probably go into Amazon this month. But at the same time, Amazon took redelivery of the fourth and final of its x WestJet 767 300 yards after conversion in Mexico City and said that aircraft will probably soon into service most likely with air transport international as well. And, of course apart from the widebodies Amazon added another 737 800 SF in Europe, flying with ASL airlines in Ireland. It looks like fourth one will follow pretty shortly And, you know, going back to the US, obviously, Amazon has now had ATR 72, bulk freighters. Those are flying with silver airways. And we know that there are two more kind of waiting in the waiting to enter service. So, you know, there's quite a lot of movement in terms of the Amazon feeding and growth. Charles Kauffman If I recall back to December 2020, and actually, yeah, towards the end of the year, I do recall some major Amazon agreements coming through just just before just prior to the year finishing. You remember some of those, Jeff. Jeff Lee talking about the CMI agreements. Charles Kauffman Yes, CMI agreements, orders well, and also just the the acquisition of Jeff Lee the acquisitions. Yeah, so CMI agreements, acquisitions. And I was just going to say, actually, that now that Amazon has started converting its next batch of Seven six sevens than those 7x Delta Airlines aircraft that it acquired. Last year at the very end of last year. We will soon see where those aircraft end up. You know, this year earlier this year, they put two of the X WestJet aircraft in Canada and there was a flying with cargo jet. So you know, it'll be interesting to see to see if we'll have another new CMI operator. Six Seven CMI operator for Amazon. Charles Kauffman Yeah, potentially a new CMI operator maybe some other type of holiday surprises in terms of prayer orders or, or version orders or commitments. We'll see. While Amazon is a major mover in the medium wide body space, we're also seeing new 767 freighter operators nearing redelivery of their first aircraft with the status of some of these conversions. Jeff Lee So yeah, it's pretty interesting. What will become yto cargo airlines first 767 300 BTS F is now almost ready. And that has completed its first test flight this week in Tel Aviv with AI and of course, this means that the redelivery is pretty imminent. And this aircraft was actually inducted in well arrived in Tel Aviv in March. And those it's the first of two that why do abort earlier this year, and those are ex Air Canada feedstock. And coincidentally, just a day after that first flight of the yto aircraft air Canada's first 767 300 PSF also to the skies in Tel Aviv. So you know, we could see 2767 freighters head off to new operators before the year ends. Charles Kauffman Yeah, and just before this call you or we were discussing the Air Canada, freighter Livery that we've seen, of course, we don't know if that is going to be the final livery are what their plans are there. But based on what you've seen, what do you what is it like? Jeff Lee It was interesting to me that they had the aircraft, the one going to Air Canada that fully painted in the old Air Canada, kind of toothpaste, toothpaste, green, greenish white, and I suspect that's because they are eager to have it in service and so they're not going to waste time painting it into the new black livery. And so when this aircraft came to Tel Aviv, it was in the old Air Canada, still in the old kind of delivery. So yeah, because we've seen this with some of the ex American Airlines, seven, six sevens that go to Amazon. And it has they've painted it just you know that silvery gray the silvery gray of the the American Airlines and the reason and had it flying, you know, especially now for peak, and then you know, they'll probably wait until sometime next year to paint it back into the full livery. We'll see. Charles Kauffman Maybe it signals going into service as quickly as possible. So if we're not seeing, or you're not expecting at least double digit production freighter deliveries this month. What else were you watching? Jeff Lee Yeah, there are quite a few narrowbody freighters that I have my eye on. Firstly, qantas Third, a321 P2F. Looks like it's almost ready to head back home from Singapore. And so that will make Qantas the largest operator of the type three but that will change very quickly next year. And sticking with EFW. I know that their first A320 P2 f should also be stretching its wings for the first time pretty soon. That should be exciting to watch. And as well. There are a couple of seven, five sevens for Amerijet that we expect or hope to start flying later this month. So a lot of interesting movements this time of year. Charles Kauffman Yeah, the takeaway is certainly that it's going to be another busy month. That capacity is still very much in need by operators across the globe and ahead of the holidays and well beyond that. That's all the time we have for today today. To those of you listening. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Cargo facts Connect. For more multimedia content like this, check out cargofacts.com and search Cargo facts connect on iTunes and Spotify. Subscribe to Cargo Facts Connect on iTunes or Spotify , or download the episode on Transistor .

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