Listen: Ukraine, Airbus conversions and EMEA preview

This past week, the industry showed some ‘Classic’ signs of life with the 737 and regional movement with ATR; however, medium narrowbody and widebody freighters continued to dominate the majority of transactions. In this episode of “Cargo Facts Connect,” Cargo Facts Deputy Editor Jeff Lee and Associate Editors Andrew Crider and Robert Luke discuss several news items from this week, including Airbus narrowbody and widebody conversions, earnings released by Atlas Air and ATSG, and updates on Ukraine. The editors then look ahead to Cargo Facts EMEA in Dubai next week. 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. Robert Luke I'm Robert Luke, associate editor of cargo facts, Jeff Lee And I'm Jeff Lee, deputy editor. Andrew Crider Unreported this week, the Russian defense minister threatened to destroy any transport aircraft originating from NATO countries arriving in the Ukraine as long as those aircraft are carrying weapons materials for use for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This statement trends both military and civilian aircraft are like primarily most of those aircraft now arrived on the border with Poland. carriers like national and then another airlines have been operating out of there. Another company Meridian Limited has been operating a Antonov am 12 from the headquarters of the Iraq tar defense in Turkey. It is rumored that aircraft has been carrying supplies for the important burrator defense UAV which Ukraine has deployed in its fight against the Russian Armed Forces. This week was also a big week for earnings calls. Robert, what did people learn from these calls? Robert Luke Thanks, Andrew. In other news Atlas air, their first quarter results came in and it is paid 150 million to cover the majority of the pre delivery costs that are still outstanding for all four are their new 747 Dash eights, and they have also succeeded in placing them under long term agreements. In addition to that, for new triple seven freighters will be added to meet customer demand which is increasing. Atlas confirmed that there is very strong interest with the additional triple sevens I look forward to sharing the details on those placements in future calls. 5747 400 F's currently under lease with that let's we'll be purchased at the end of the lease term, the first of which was purchased in March. Atlas posted first quarter earnings of 200 to 2.8 million and adjusted net income was 88 point 8 million. On a reported basis net income was actually at 1.5 million. Atlas projects the second quarter revenues to exceed 1.1 billion, and that will come from flying more than 85,000 Block hours. In February Atlas established the $200 million share repurchase program in Atlas began entering into that program by completing a $100 million transaction on the accelerated share repurchase in exchange for 1.2 million shares. Jeff Lee Meanwhile ATSG also reported its q1 earnings. And the most interesting thing to come out of that was the ATSG has signed a deal with ASL aviation holdings in Ireland for three a 321 freighters and to a 330s. Now we don't exactly know which variant of the 330. This is, but it is interesting nonetheless, because ASL already has two, three A 330s that it's operating on a CMI basis for DHL. Now, the A321 would be a completely new platform for ASL currently has two or 375 sevens. But on a more general note that is renewing its narrowbodies with a large amount of 737 800 BC F's but this is reflective of the growth of the Express segment. And obviously ESL is a huge provider of ACMI, and CMI services for many of the integrators and express companies and on a different note, we had 2747 400 stories this week. One about jetonex transferring production 747 400 F from longtail aviation to air Atlanta Icelandic. The other one was about rom cargo in Romania is this carrier received a 747 last year. We believe there are connections to Harrow trans cargo in Moldova. And this this airline had its AOC briefly suspended towards the end of last year. But that was that issue was resolved. But this second aircraft was resurrected in 2021 had been thought for a while they brought it to Jakarta for heavy maintenance. And now it appears to be always ready for service. So we'll we'll see what happens to this aircraft and what they do with it. But it is interesting as part of this continuing theme of people bringing seven four sevens back online, and there are a few more What do we know of on the way? So we'll cover and observe these these movements in due course. And finally, we're just about to depart the US and head to Dubai because of course, cargo packs, EMBA is taking place next week. And this is particularly exciting for the two of us. It's it will be your first time. So let me ask you, each of you, for your thoughts on this, what what are you most looking forward to? Andrew Crider Jeff, I'm glad you asked. For all of our listeners, Jeff and I are currently in our car driving to Washington Dulles airport to catch our flight to the United Arab Emirates. And there's a lot to look forward. It's been a very busy year for the cargo industry. And I think the last week really teed up for a exciting conference. Primarily, I'm looking forward to the speakers. I know we'll hear from bluebird Nordic My apologies, which has just been growing at such a precipitous rate this last year. And I'm really excited to see their thoughts on that and how that growth will play out in the years to come. I'm also excited for a panel that I will be moderating on sustainability. Sustainability is top of mind for many air carriers. And we'll be hearing from both Boeing and Air France KLM on the subject, Air France KLM, just this past week completed a challenge to themselves to fly and operate flights in the most sustainable manner possible. And I'm really excited see how that all turned out. Robert Luke That sounds very interesting to Drew. Jeff, what I'm looking forward to is the freighter fleet forecast. I'm very curious to know how you know the lessors. And operators will not only rebound but forecast and plan strategically going forward with the Prater situation or transition that had to take place due to pandemic and how can they pretty much assure their customers that, you know, dedicating their services directly to the freight of operators will alleviate some of the setbacks that we experienced due due to the pandemic. So I'm very interested in the freighter fleet forecast. I'm excited to learn about the new aircraft technology and innovation as of course everyone's going sustainable green, whether it's electrically driven operation of vehicles and supporting resources for the aircraft. So eventually looking forward to not only just doing the sustainable fuel that Andrew mentioned, but eventually turning into some electric engines that could potentially power long distance freight hauls. And additionally, some of the cargo drones, you know, that I think will intrigue me very well will pique my interest as we look forward to this event coming coming up here this week. And I'm definitely wanting to see what the lessors outlook is on the freight is in convergence. Because again, you know, as we transition into this new era, freight or movement and sustainable technology and learning the lessons from the pandemic, what did they come away from an experience perspective and learning perspective with what we just went through the last couple of years? And how are they preparing to better better facilitate situations like this that may present themselves in the future? So I do believe this will be some very key pieces of interest for me as we get ready to prepare for this wonderful week of the E M E a conference. Andrew Crider Well, that's all the time we have for today before we go through the TSA checkpoint. To those of you listening thank you for tuning in to this episode of cargo vans connect, or multimedia content like this, check out, cargo facts.com and 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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