Cargo Facts Connect

Cargo Facts
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Cargo Facts Connect

Cargo Facts Connect addresses all things freighters and aircraft. Connect delves into what's new in freighter transactions, belly capacity trends, conversion activity and aircraft finance. Brought to you by Cargo Facts, long the industry's leading information resource on freighter aircraft, Cargo Facts Connect gets you inside the freighter business. Cargo Facts has been the newsletter of record of the air cargo and freighter aircraft industries for over 40 years. Cargo Facts, published by Royal Media, provides its readers with timely, actionable news and industry intelligence. The deep value in Cargo Facts centers on its detailed coverage of the market and exploration of every nuance of air cargo and freighter aircraft. Cargo Facts offers a Premium subscription service, which includes a digital monthly newsletter, a weekly email Update, exclusive event discounts, and more. The Cargo Facts Premium subscription provides its subscribers with unparalleled coverage of the market. Subscribe now at https://cargofacts.com/subscribe/. Cargo Facts produces the following leading industry events: Cargo Facts EMEA, Cargo Facts Asia and the Cargo Facts Symposium.

  1. 3 DAYS AGO

    Lessors navigate narrowbody freighter market challenges

    Prolonged strong demand from the passenger segment for narrowbody aircraft and engines is still creating a challenging freighter leasing market, especially on 737-800s, speakers on a panel agreed at Cargo Facts Symposium 2024 in San Diego last week. The panel on freighter aircraft and engine leasing, moderated by Mylene Scholnick, senior manager and head of worldwide fleet and carriers at Amazon Global Air, discussed recent trends and developments in the segment, including market saturation and increasing costs. The panelists were: Dora Alexander, executive vice president of Hamden Aviation;Ryan Anderson, vice president of commercial in the Americas at Aero Capital Solutions;Maik Falkuss, director of sales in North America at MTU AENA; andDavid Ellis, SVP and global head of asset transactions at GA Telesis.“Right now, there are probably over fifty 737 freighters for sale currently being actively marketed,” Alexander said. “So that gives a bit of a scope of what we’re talking about in terms of creating that downward pressure on lease pricing and people making different decisions on leasing out these engines.” Some lessors have removed engines from both A321Fs and 737-800Fs immediately after conversion and leased out the engines separately for passenger use, the panel said. “Lessors, depending on how they’re structured, have the ability to be patient,” Anderson said. “And let’s take the -800, for example. As long as lease rates are as high as they are for the [CFM56-7B], a lessor can afford to be potentially patient with that airframe in storage while those two engines are out creating value for customers and for lessor shareholders in the market.” GA Telesis’ Ellis said that the industry has not yet seen 737NG freighters replacing 737 Classics in large numbers, while operators are deferring shop visits for their engines and turning to engine leasing instead. “Couple that with a high volume of aircraft converted, the Classics staying in service longer — it’s sort of a perfect storm of the freighter values suffering while at the same time, engine values have gone up,” he said. Tune in to this week’s “Cargo Facts Connect” to hear more from the panel at Cargo Facts Symposium 2024. Follow Cargo Facts’ coverage of Cargo Facts Symposium 2024 on our dedicated page.

    16 min

  2. SEP 27

    TAAG Angola eager to grow with African cargo market

    TAAG Angola Airlines is keen to capitalize on the potential of the African market to grow its cargo business, having brought on an industry veteran and introduced its first 737NG freighter into operation less than a year ago. TAAG took delivery of a 2003-vintage 737-800BCF (33552, ex-Ryanair) on lease from BBAM in September 2023, but had not yet put it into service when the carrier appointed David Ambridge as director of cargo and mail that November. Ambridge helped put the freighter to work soon after that and it now flies at least four times a week. “That doesn’t sound a lot, but there are some obstacles that we’re overcoming,” Ambridge says in this week’s episode of “Cargo Facts Connect.” “We’ve actually created what I like to call a niche market now for this aeroplane, and that’s really where I see TAAG Cargo,” he says. “I see us being a niche carrier. We’re not Ethiopian; we don’t want to be, and we never will be.” Ethiopian Airlines is the largest freighter operator in Africa with ten 777Fs, three 767-300BDSFs and four 737-800Fs. While TAAG hopes to expand its own freighter fleet, it will also need to overcome hurdles, many of which relate to regulatory issues, Ambridge says. “That’s a really big obstacle that we need to start sitting down with customs and understanding why they do it and where they feel the threats are and then seeing if they’re open to accept information electronically rather than via paper,” he says. “Then we can give them advance manifests and an advance notice, and they can do maybe a little bit more of their risk assessment before the flight so that we can try and get stuff moved around Africa quicker.” Tune in to this week’s “Cargo Facts Connect” to hear more on TAAG as Ambridge speaks to Cargo Facts Senior Associate Editor Robert Luke.

    16 min

  3. SEP 13

    Pascan Aviation enters freighter market with Saab 340BF

    Canadian regional carrier Pascan Aviation will soon become the first Saab 340B freighter operator in the country after recently entering the dedicated cargo segment. Pascan began a fleet changeover to passenger Saab 340Bs during the pandemic and has carried cargo on its passenger flights since operations began in 1999. Only recently did it give serious consideration to the freighter market and ended up with a deal to fly a Saab 340B freighter for a customer, President and Chief Executive Julian Roberts told Cargo Facts. Pascan leased the 1990-vintage unit 340B-219 from Jetstream Aviation Capital and has temporarily assigned Akron, Ohio-based Castle Aviation to fly the freighter on its behalf. The operation began in July. “We’re waiting until the STC is approved here by our authorities at Transport Canada,” Roberts says in this week’s episode of “Cargo Facts Connect.” “We expect that will be done within the coming month or two when we will import the aircraft onto our certificate and start operating it as a Canadian aircraft,” he says. Pascan says there is underserved demand in more remote regions in Canada and expects to take on a second Saab 340BF from Jetstream by early 2025. “There’s been a lot of people knocking at the door asking about different products and how we can move it back and forth, and a lot of that is revolving around seafood right now,” Roberts says. “They feel that the aircraft — its ability, range and the amount of weight that we can fly — that seems to be a good fit for a lot of people.” Tune in to this week’s “Cargo Facts Connect” to hear more on Pascan as Roberts speaks to Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee.

    19 min

  4. AUG 31

    Aeros dirigible platforms to serve as aerial drone hubs

    Airship manufacturer Aeros plans to launch two multi-role airships to deliver large payloads globally while serving as aerial hubs for cargo drones. The smaller of the two airships, the Aeroscraft ML866, can carry up to 66 tonnes of payload up to 3,100 miles, while the larger ML868 is expected to carry up to 250 tonnes over a range of 6,200 miles, Aeros Chief Executive and Chief Engineer Igor Pasternak says in this week’s episode of “Cargo Facts Connect,” recorded at the 2024 FAA Drone and Advanced Air Mobility Symposium in July. Aeros hopes to obtain FAA approval for the ML866 and ML868 in 2028 and 2034, respectively, Pasternak says. Both hydrogen-powered airships can travel at a cruising speed of 120 mph and can hover to pick up or drop off cargo, he says. “Imagine the airship is some kind of warehouse,” Pasternak tells “Cargo Facts Connect.” “It is certified and has a pilot. You can simply fly over downtown Los Angeles or Beverly Hills — you don’t have any restrictions. “The drones are located in the airship, and the airship picks up the packages from a warehouse outside the city. It’s a large warehouse and in the city there’s no more land for warehousing. So, it can pick up the packages from the fulfillment center, flying fifteen to twenty miles and parking or hovering over the Pacific neighborhood — with drones just flying up and down delivering packages.” The Aeroscraft airships will be able to move full cargo payloads with the speed of airfreight but cost less than ground delivery, Pasternak says. Aeros began developing airships for commercial and military use in 1995 and has delivered its dirigibles to customers across the globe. The company received FAA certification for the Aeros 40B Sky Dragon airship model in 2000 and has received certifications for its airships in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Tune in to this week’s “Cargo Facts Connect” to hear Pasternak’s conversation with Cargo Facts Senior Associate Editor Robert Luke.

    12 min

  5. AUG 16

    De Havilland’s bulk and LCD Dash 8 freighters to come in 2025

    De Havilland Aircraft of Canada is progressing past the engineering phase for its bulk and large-cargo-door conversions for the Dash 8-400, and plans to certify the programs in 2025. The two new products build on De Havilland’s Dash 8-400 Quick Change conversion, for which it recently obtained Transport Canada certification. “We feel that there’s significant market potential in the regional space to connect Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities into main distribution hubs for cargo carriers,” Vice President of Sales and Marketing Ryan DeBrusk says in this week’s episode of “Cargo Facts Connect” recorded at the Farnborough International Airshow last month. “We feel that the 400 is the right product with its speed and range capabilities and field-performance capabilities to allow carriers, whether it be traditional cargo carriers or non-traditional, to get into markets that they really economically could not do so today.” De Havilland launched the three Dash 8-400 conversions at the Farnborough show in 2022. Since then, it has secured customers including Ethiopian Airlines, Peru-based ATSA Airlines, Kenya-based Advantage Air and United Arab Emirates-based Falcon Aviation. “Without a doubt, the supply of aircraft is down from where it was,” DeBrusk said. “That said, I think there will be aircraft on a steady state over the coming years that are perfect for freight conversion, and so we’ll be looking to take advantage of that.” Tune in to this week’s “Cargo Facts Connect” to hear more on De Havilland as DeBrusk speaks with Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee.

    14 min

  6. AUG 2

    AeroUnion, Avianca on freighter fleet upgrade

    AeroUnion in June started flying its first A330-300P2F as part of a fleet renewal and collaboration strategy between it and Avianca Cargo. AeroUnion has based the 2006-vintage unit 791 (ex-SmartLynx) in Mexico City (NLU) for flights within Mexico and to Colombia and the United States, including some on an ACMI basis for the Colombia-based Avianca Cargo. “We are really happy to welcome the new technology to our company because it’s a radical turnover to our numbers in terms of ability and capacity, and it’s also a big improvement in fuel consumption,” Chief Executive Danilo Correa says in this week’s episode of “Cargo Facts Connect.” “We are expecting to reduce fuel consumption by about 30%, impacting positively our environmental footprint,” he says. After beginning operations with the A330, AeroUnion retired its final A300-600F (642) at the end of June and has two 1987-vintage 767-200BDSFs left in its fleet. Unit 791 is the first of two A330-300P2Fs Avianca Cargo will lease from CDB Aviation. The carrier also has two A330-200P2Fs on the way and intends to place more A330s on AeroUnion’s AOC. Avianca Cargo’s own fleet consists of six production A330-200P2Fs. “This is a milestone for the partnership because the old fleet is not as reliable, not as efficient and not as big,” Avianca Cargo Senior Vice President Diogo Elias says. “So, we are up-gauging, we are more reliable, and we have much more capacity.” The two carriers plan to strengthen operations throughout Latin America using their hubs at NLU, Bogota (BOG) and Miami (MIA). “This is a running business and we, of course, will find new opportunities to take advantage of,” Correa says. Tune in to this week’s “Cargo Facts Connect” to hear more on AeroUnion and Avianca Cargo as Correa and Elias speak with Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee.

    21 min

  7. JUL 19

    ATSG leadership on group’s new direction

    ATSG is bullish about its growth strategy after a series of changes that culminated with Chief Executive Mike Berger’s appointment June 4.   As part of the leadership change, Jeffrey Dominick became ATSG’s president June 4 after more than seven years as a board member, bringing his Wall Street background to the role.   Dominick’s goal for 2024 is to help continue to position ATSG to evolve further, whether on the asset, customer or capital side, he told Cargo Facts during a visit this week to ATSG’s headquarters in Wilmington, Ohio (ILN).   “I’ve watched [the organization’s] growth evolve, and so in stepping into it right now, I’m excited for the opportunities when we move forward,” Dominick says in this week’s episode of “Cargo Facts Connect.”    “I think we all know how the company has grown with its different asset mix. It’s leasing as well as three airlines underneath. And as I step into it today, if I look at say, the rest of the year, we’re growing with our customers globally.”   ATSG’s leasing arm, CAM, is the largest freighter lessor and is headed by Todd France, who became president of CAM in April 2022 and was previously in other positions within the group.   CAM saw demand for its 767 freighters dip in 2023 and returns from some customers because of the softer market, but the lessor has also found new customers for its 767-300s, and demand for the -200s has “absolutely increased in the past twelve months,” France says.   “We’re placing multiple airplanes at multiple customers in multiple areas across the world,” France says. “So we continue to, in my mind, do a very good job at identifying that growth potential.”   Meanwhile, ATSG will soon place its first A330P2Fs and deliver more A321PCFs on lease, Dominick and France say.   Tune in to this week’s “Cargo Facts Connect” to hear more on ATSG and CAM as Dominick and France speak with Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee at ILN.

    18 min

  8. MAY 31

    Modern Logistics’ Koga at Cargo Facts LATAM 2024

    Brazil added its second 737NG freighter operator this year when Modern Logistics began flying the type, even as some of the country’s other carriers take on more Classics. Modern Logistics is undergoing a transformation to grow its presence in the logistics industry. “Part of this investment plan was to bring new aircraft,” Chief Executive Cristiano Koga said during a fireside chat at Cargo Facts LATAM 2024 in Panama City this month. Excerpts of this conversation are included in today’s episode of the “Cargo Facts Connect” podcast. “We are very confident that the aircraft that we have signed and are already operating in Brazil will help us achieve this long-term goal to be an integrated logistics provider with a time-definite product end to end,” Koga notes in the chat. Modern has leased two 737-800BCFs from BBAM, with the 2004-vintage unit 33566 arriving in October 2023 and its 2003-vintage sibling (33550) arriving in February 2024. They join one 737-400F (25374) and one 737-300F (24219). “The performance of [the -800s] from a payload perspective, from a cost-to-serve-per-unit perspective is amazing,” Koga said. “So, we’re very excited about the fleet. But again, it needs to serve the right industry, the right sector and the right routes. That’s why one of the pillars of our long-term strategy is network planning.” Even though Modern has phased out a 737-400F and a 737-300F, it still sees a use for them in at least the next six to twelve months. “The -300 makes sense for specific projects, like charters or even e-commerce, because it’s the cheapest aircraft,” Koga said. “So, we still have the Classics, we have the two NGs, and it’s proving to be a very good decision to apply [the Classics] to these kinds of projects and leave the NGs for the big routes and international expansion as well.” Countries at the top of the list to see Modern’s 737-800BCFs include Argentina, Chile and Colombia, he added. Tune in to this week’s “Cargo Facts Connect” for the discussion with Koga.

    14 min
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Ratings & Reviews

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out of 5
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About

Cargo Facts Connect addresses all things freighters and aircraft. Connect delves into what's new in freighter transactions, belly capacity trends, conversion activity and aircraft finance. Brought to you by Cargo Facts, long the industry's leading information resource on freighter aircraft, Cargo Facts Connect gets you inside the freighter business. Cargo Facts has been the newsletter of record of the air cargo and freighter aircraft industries for over 40 years. Cargo Facts, published by Royal Media, provides its readers with timely, actionable news and industry intelligence. The deep value in Cargo Facts centers on its detailed coverage of the market and exploration of every nuance of air cargo and freighter aircraft. Cargo Facts offers a Premium subscription service, which includes a digital monthly newsletter, a weekly email Update, exclusive event discounts, and more. The Cargo Facts Premium subscription provides its subscribers with unparalleled coverage of the market. Subscribe now at https://cargofacts.com/subscribe/. Cargo Facts produces the following leading industry events: Cargo Facts EMEA, Cargo Facts Asia and the Cargo Facts Symposium.

Information

  • Creator
    Cargo Facts
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2024
  • Episodes
    131
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Royal Media - 2020
  • Show Website
    Cargo Facts Connect

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