Revisiting the 747-400 Freighter

In November 2017, air freight traffic was growing 8.0% year-over-year, jet fuel was selling for about $1.75/gallon, Cargolux CEO Richard Forson was telling journalists that he was thinking about expanding his fleet of 23 747 freighters, and Boeing’s production of new 747-8Fs had slowed to a crawl. From where were these additional freighters to come? […]

• Alan Hedge
• August 10, 2018

EgyptAir outlines timeline for A330-200P2F redeliveries [video]

Cairo-based EgyptAir says the first of three freighter-converted A330-200Fs it has on order with EFW will be redelivered later this month, around 30 June. A second A330-200P2F, meanwhile, is expected in October. EgyptAir became the launch customer (and so far the only customer) for EFW’s A330-200P2F program, when it placed an order for two conversions […]

• Charles Kauffman
• June 8, 2018

The next big freighter?

What are the widebody freighter options going to be five years from now? As things stand today, those options look to be diminishing rapidly. There are currently four active production freighter programs: Airbus offers the A330-200F, while Boeing offers the 767-300F, 777F and 747-8F. But not only is the clock ticking on all four of […]

• David Harris
• March 22, 2018

10 most-read stories on CargoFacts in 2017

With 2017 now in the history books, we take a look at the stories that drew the most attention from our readers in a year that turned out to be one of the best ever for our industry. 10: More Freighter Orders for Boeing. Despite the ever-increasing demand for air freight over the last two […]

• David Harris
• December 29, 2017

PEMCO flexes its combi muscles

PEMCO World Air Services passed a milestone yesterday in the development of its 737-700 Passenger-to-FlexCombi conversion program. Donning protective eyewear, John Chisholm, owner of Bahrain-based launch customer Chisholm Enterprises, made the final cuts in the skin of unit 30293, an ex-Yakutia 737-700 that will, following certification and redelivery, be operated by Chisholm subsidiary Texel Air. […]

• David Harris
• October 20, 2017

Keeping track of the narrowbody conversion programs

How many narrowbody conversion programs does the world need? When Aeronautical Engineers Inc announced the launch of a 737-800 P-to-F conversion program at the Cargo Facts Asia event in Hong Kong this spring, we did not expect AEI would have the field to itself for long. But just six months later the field has become […]

• David Harris
• November 4, 2014

Wait a minute, you can’t do this to a narrowbody!

The narrowbody passenger-to-freighter conversion market has been hot for the last several years, and conversion houses are constantly upgrading their existing programs and introducing new ones to match the growing demand. But let’s be honest: there really aren’t that many active conversion programs, and they’re all based on the pretty simple idea of cutting a […]

• David Harris
• September 15, 2014