Airbus is making steady progress in the industrialization phase of its new A350F program as components come together and test rigs take shape.

“We’re sorting through and finalizing the processes for assembly ready for next year, into final assembly and then first flight,” Airbus Head of Freighter Marketing Crawford Hamilton tells Cargo Facts in this week’s episode of the “Cargo Facts Connect” podcast. “In the meantime, we test and test and test because one of our big targets is to make sure that we have a mature aircraft at EIS.”

Airbus ended 2023 with firm orders for fifty A350Fs thanks to deals in December with Cathay Pacific for at least six and with Turkish Airlines for at least five.

The European planemaker added five A350Fs to its backlog in March after receiving an order from Taiwan-based Starlux Airlines.

“It shows what we’re doing is right and everything I’ve talked about is really coming to fruition and people are starting to see,” Hamilton said.

Airbus and its suppliers are preparing full-scale mockups of components, including the cargo-loading system and the cargo door. Production of the prototype’s fuselage began in 2023.

The first delivery and entry into service of the A350F will take place in 2026.

Tune in to this week’s “Cargo Facts Connect” to hear more on Airbus freighters, and get a sneak peek at next week’s Cargo Facts Asia event in Singapore with Titan Aviation Leasing Chief Commercial Officer Eamonn Forbes and World Star Aviation Chief Marketing Officer Nuno Leal.

Dubai-based Emirates is due to start taking delivery of some of its five new 777Fs this year as part of a 2022 order with Boeing.

The carrier has returned four 777Fs to lessor DAE Capital over the past five years but also added two new units in May and June 2023, bringing its fleet back to eleven 777Fs.

Further growth is on the way, with Emirates planning to convert ten 777-300ERs with IAI.

Though 2023 may have been a lackluster year for freighter operators, Emirates is more optimistic about 2024.

“The year has started up very strongly; we’re seeing exceptionally high tonnages for this time of the year for traditional, past years, I would say,” Nadeem Sultan, senior vice president of freighters and cargo planning at Emirates, tells Cargo Facts in this week’s episode of the “Cargo Facts Connect” podcast, recorded at the IATA World Cargo Symposium 2024 in Hong Kong this month. “So, from that perspective, it looks like a promising year for airfreight overall. We think we probably should expect a growth from 1 to 2% overall in the airfreight market this year.”

Emirates’ expansion and development are twofold, involving more than the fleet.

“There’s a lot of aircraft capacity coming in — both passenger as well as freighter — over the coming couple of years,” Sultan said. “But equally, we’re looking at really investing into the future for our air cargo infrastructure in Dubai, in terms of a new air cargo terminal and expanding our current capabilities. And that’s something that’s going to be a key component as well of Emirates SkyCargo’s future growth strategy.”

Tune in to this week’s podcast to hear more on Emirates as Sultan speaks with Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee in Hong Kong.

ST Engineering last week took redelivery of the first EFW A321-200P2F conversion to be carried out at the Haite Tianjin facility.

Freighter conversions are not new to Haite Tianjin, but the company plans to increase its activity in the segment.

“This business is a very strategic decision because we need to have a mixture of work and the type of work is important to us,” General Manager Ivan Chin tells Cargo Facts in this week’s episode of the “Cargo Facts Connect” podcast, recorded at the redelivery ceremony in Tianjin.

Haite Tianjin has provided touch labor for IAI’s 737NG conversions since 2019 and has completed thirteen 737-800BDSFs and -700BDSFs to date.

The company last week also broke ground for a third hangar offering three additional narrowbody bays for conversions and other MRO work. The hangar is expected to be completed in the second half of 2025.

“[Doing conversions] actually has a lot of this repeatable work that we are looking at,” Chin said. “After the third-phase expansion, that is exactly where we are looking at expansion to cater for the growth, especially in the A320 and A321 cargo conversion market.”

Tune in to this week’s podcast to hear more on Haite as Chin speaks with Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee in Tianjin.