Production freighter orders and deliveries in 2016, Part II

Yesterday, we began our look at production freighter orders and deliveries in 2016 with an overview of the last five years, today we continue with a summary of the order, delivery, and backlog status of the four freighters currently offered by Airbus and Boeing, at the end of 2016. We begin with Airbus’ single entry, the freighter variant of its popular medium widebody A330 family.

A330-200F: Airbus booked no orders in 2016 for its only production freighter. During the year, the manufacturer delivered three units – two to Turkish Airlines, and one to Qatar Airways. To date, Airbus has booked a total of forty-two orders for the A330-200F, and delivered thirty-six, leaving it with a backlog of just six units.

For its part, Boeing offers three production freighters, spanning the size range from the medium-widebody 767-300F, through the 777F, to the super jumbo 747-8F. We start with the latter.

747-8F: After several years of drought, rain began falling for Boeing’s largest freighter in 2015, with orders from AirBridgeCargo Airlines (twenty, through parent Volga-Dnepr Group), Silk Way West Airlines (three), and Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings (one). Japan-based Nippon Cargo Airlines cancelled four orders, but this still left Boeing a net of twenty orders for a freighter program some observers believed to be effectively dead. 2016 brought more good news, with a fourteen-unit order from UPS, bringing Boeing’s order total for the 747-8F to 101.
On the delivery side of the equation, Boeing handed over six 747-8Fs to five customers in 2016, with AirBridgeCargo taking two (one of which went to UK-based sister carrier CargoLogicAir), while Cargolux, Cathay Pacific, Korean Air, and Silk Way each took one. This leaves Boeing with thirty-two orders in its backlog.

777F: The resurgence in 777F orders that began in 2014 and continued in 2015 came to a screeching halt in 2016, during which Boeing not only booked no new 777F orders, but, in fact, suffered a cancellation of four orders by Guggenheim Aviation Partners (now renamed Altavair). Given that Boeing has booked a net total of 165 orders for the freighter variant of its 777F, one bad year may not be cause for alarm, but it is hardly a cause for celebration, either.

During the year, Boeing delivered eleven 777Fs to four customers: Korean Air and Qatar Airways took four and three, respectively, while Etihad Airways and lessor Altavair each took two (with the Altavair freighters going to Korean on long-term lease). Boeing’s 777F backlog now stands at thirty-six.

767-300F: FedEx was the only customer for Boeing’s 767-300F in 2016, with an order for six more units, bringing its total 767-300F orders to 112. The Memphis-based integrator was also Boeing’s only 767-300F delivery customer in the year, taking a total of thirteen units. Boeing has now taken orders for a total of 196 767-300Fs and delivered 122, leaving it with seventy-five units in its backlog (all for FedEx).

The chart at right summarizes the the net order, delivery, and backlog situation for 2016.