Production freighter orders in 2019 – 747 nowhere to be seen

• Charles Kauffman and Jeff Lee
• January 15, 2020
• Aircraft, Carriers, Equipment, Features, Freighter Fleet Analysis, Production Freighters

Given that 2018 was such a stellar year for freighter orders, with eighty-three aircraft ordered, 2019 was perhaps always going to pale in comparison. Still, the year ended with a respectable twenty-eight production jet freighter aircraft being added to the order books. The orders for these twenty-eight aircraft, consisting of seventeen 777Fs and eleven 767-300Fs, […]

Air Atlanta Icelandic looks to 777 platform

• Jeff Lee
• January 9, 2020
• Aircraft, Carriers, Conversions, News, Production Freighters, Strategy, Widebody Conversions

Air Atlanta Icelandic could soon be adding 777s to the list of aircraft it operates. The Iceland-based carrier has begun recruiting 777 type-rated captains and first officers through Confair, a Dutch recruitment agency for cockpit crew, flight attendants and technical maintenance personnel. According to the job description, this new batch of pilots will be based […]

Top widebody freighter developments of 2019

• Jeff Lee
• January 3, 2020
• Aircraft, Carriers, Conversions, Equipment, Production Freighters, Widebody Conversions

As the first week of 2020 draws to a close, we look back and reflect on some of the most important and newsworthy developments affecting freighter aircraft types in 2019, starting with widebodies. To begin with, we note that while stories involving the 747 are consistently among our most popular, in 2019 this seemed to […]

European freighter fleet analysis (Part II): 777F on the rise

• Charles Kauffman and Jeff Lee
• December 30, 2019
• Aircraft, Carriers, Conversions, Features, Production Freighters, Strategy, Widebody Conversions, Widebody Fleet Analysis

This is the second part of our analysis of the European jet freighter fleet. Last week, we looked at narrowbodies in Part I. Turning to the widebody jet freighter fleet operated by European carriers, the chart shows that the total number increased 8.3% since last year to 209 units. Notably, the overall number of 747-400Fs […]

China Southern spins off cargo unit

• Jeff Lee
• December 26, 2019
• Aircraft, Carriers, News, Production Freighters, Strategy

China Southern Airlines has spun off its cargo unit into a separate company. The new, fully owned subsidiary was set up on Dec. 24 and has a registered capital of 1 billion yuan (US$142.9 million). The move is in line with China’s national policy of reforming its large state-owned enterprises. China Southern said during Cargo […]

FedEx accelerates MD-10-10F retirement, receives final production 767F for 2019

• Jeff Lee
• December 24, 2019
• Aircraft, Carriers, Express, News, Production Freighters, Strategy

FedEx will speed up the withdrawal of its MD-10-10F fleet, with nine more aircraft to be retired over the next six months, as the company took delivery of its fifteenth 767-300F (63113) this calendar year [FAT 005268]. Apart from unit 63113, which is the 20th and final production 767-300F delivered by Boeing in 2019, FedEx […]

17 Asia-Pacific fleet additions in 2019

• Jeff Lee
• December 13, 2019
• Aircraft, Carriers, Conversions, Equipment, Narrowbody Conversions, Production Freighters, Strategy, Widebody Conversions

Earlier this week, we looked at how the freighter fleet in mainland China has grown in 2019. As the year draws to a close, here’s an overview of the seventeen freighter aircraft that were added to carriers based elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region over the course of the year. [Note: for the purposes of this […]

LATAM completes fleet renewal with redelivery of 767-300BCF

• Charles Kauffman
• December 10, 2019
• Freighter Aircraft Transactions

LATAM Cargo took redelivery of a 767-300BCF (34629) from Boeing [FAT 005254] earlier this month following conversion to freighter configuration by Boeing at the ST Engineering Aerospace facility at Singapore’s Paya Lebar Air Base (QPG). The aircraft was immediately placed on LATAM Cargo Colombia’s AOC and on Dec. 7, the aircraft commenced commercial revenue service […]