Atlas posts $400M loss, parks four converted 747Fs

• Jeff Lee
• February 20, 2020
• Aircraft, Capacity & Demand, Carriers, Equipment, News, Production Freighters, Strategy, Widebody Conversions

Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings today reported a net loss of $410.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2019, partly resulting from a non-cash special charge of $485.2 million related to the write-down of the company’s whole 747-400F fleet due to lower cargo yields and aircraft utilization. Atlas posted the loss despite block hours in the […]

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 […]

New conversion programs to shake up market for cargo loading systems?

• Charles Kauffman and Jeff Lee
• December 9, 2019
• Aircraft, Conversions, Equipment, Features, Narrowbody Conversions, Widebody Conversions

With A320-family and 777 passenger-to-freighter conversion programs being developed by a number of different STC holders, the market for cargo loading systems (CLS) could see somewhat of a shakeup. At present, just a handful of companies manufacture maindeck CLS for freighter conversion – a situation that is not expected to change. New conversion programs, however, offer a chance of market share redistribution for the […]

Freighters absent from Dubai Airshow 2019

• Charles Kauffman and Jeff Lee
• November 21, 2019
• Aircraft, News

The 2019 edition of the Dubai Airshow is behind us, but despite the appearance of Egyptair Cargo’s newest A330-200P2F (610) recently redelivered by EFW, there were no freighter orders to be seen, in stark contrast with the Paris Air Show this June, where we saw a large amount of activity with regard to freighters, particularly […]

Freighter fleet growth pushes Atlas, Qatar and Turkish higher in 2018 traffic rankings

• Charles Kauffman
• August 14, 2019
• Aircraft, All Posts, Capacity & Demand, Carriers, Features

Yesterday, part I of our two-part analysis of the world's top 50 cargo carriers in 2018 revealed three carriers, Atlas Air Group, Qatar Airways and Turkish Cargo, that had made notable increases in rank among the top 50. For each of the three carriers, a growing freighter fleet led to higher traffic. Today, we take […]

22 of top 25 cargo carriers operated freighters in 2018

• Charles Kauffman
• August 13, 2019
• All Posts, Capacity & Demand, Carriers, Features

Among the world’s top twenty-five cargo carriers in 2018, ranked by freight tonne kilometers (FTKs) carried, twenty-two of twenty-five carriers operated freighters. Expand the list to the top fifty cargo airlines and thirty-three carriers operated freighters. The remaining 34%, mostly comprised of mainline carriers with large widebody passenger fleets, made the list without significant maindeck […]

Kalitta secures contract with DHL for 777F ops

• Jeff Lee
• July 29, 2019
• Aircraft, All Posts, Capacity & Demand, Carriers, Express, Features, News, Production Freighters, Strategy

US-based Kalitta Air’s first 777F (35607, ex-Emirates) will begin flying routes for DHL Express on an ACMI basis next month, the carrier confirmed to Cargo Facts. The aircraft was delivered last month, on lease from DAE Capital [FAT 004938]. Earlier this week, photos of the aircraft in Kalitta Air livery with a DHL tail surfaced […]

Freighter aircraft transactions through June

• Caryn Livingston
• July 4, 2019
• All Posts, Features, Freighter Aircraft Transactions

Every week in Cargo Facts Update, we include a list of recent freighter aircraft transactions, and then a comprehensive summary in the monthly issue of Cargo Facts. Each reference to a freighter aircraft transaction (FAT) in our publications contains a unique FAT code linked to the FAT database on the CargoFacts.com website. This database is […]