Singapore Airlines is preparing for the arrival of its first A350F as it continues to manage the hurdles challenging the freighter market.

The airline will gradually retire its 747-400Fs as Airbus starts delivering its new large-widebody in 2026, but no estimate has been given for when the transition will be complete.

“It’s really a lot of work, and rightly so,” Singapore Airlines Senior Vice President of Cargo Marvin Tan said during a fireside chat at Cargo Facts Asia 2024 in Singapore last week. “I mean, we really have to go through all of our processes, our systems, our training, our preparedness, even staff engagement, with a fine-toothed comb.”

Listen to Tan on the latest episode of the “Cargo Facts Connect” podcast.

Singapore Airlines was the first 747-400F operator to commit to the A350F and has seven on firm order.

“From an operational perspective, I think two things. One is that, obviously, you lose the nose-loading capability; for us this is a fairly small segment of the cargo, so I think it’s manageable for us,” Tan says. “The other aspect, of course, is more just the loading configuration, because of the different contours of the aircraft, so some adjustment needed there.”

Geopolitical and economic issues as well as labor and supply chain challenges continue to affect the airfreight industry.

“All these factors come into play in terms of us figuring out how best to make use of the capacity that we have on hand, until, of course, the A350Fs come online,” Tan says.

Tune in to this week’s “Cargo Facts Connect” to hear an edited extract of the discussion with Tan.

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.

The United States will soon get a new freighter operator when Miami-based 7Air Cargo gains certification.

The startup airline has agreed to lease two 2006-vintage 737-800SFs from Aircastle as its first freighters. The first of those (34799, ex-SpiceJet) finished receiving its new paint job in Goodyear, Ariz., (GYR) this week.

7Air Cargo expects to start flying proving runs in March and hopes to obtain its AOC in April.

“We’re on track as of today,” Chief Executive Amos Rodriguez says in this week’s episode of the “Cargo Facts Connect” podcast.

7Air is part of Xtreme Holdings and is in discussions with cargo customers. It will not only operate charters but will also move its own freight, Rodriguez said.

With the first two 737-800SFs secured, 7Air is considering adding more 737-800 freighters and is even looking at widebodies.

“As far as the first route, we are concentrating on Central America,” Vice President of Commercial Operations Carlos Cock says. “There’ll be several destinations within Central America.”

Tune in to this week’s podcast to hear more on 7Air Cargo’s plans as Rodriguez and Cock speak with Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee.

Beatrice Peters and David Thimm, vice presidents of new business at Backbone Freighter Leasing, part of the Dr. Peters Group, joined Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee live from Cargo Facts EMEA 2024 in Amsterdam earlier this week.

Germany-based Backbone Freighter Leasing is the launch customer of the Kansas Modification Center 777-300ERCF conversion program, with a firm order for three slots and options for seven more.

“It’s a very promising and sensible way to use our feedstock,” Peters says in this week’s episode of the “Cargo Facts Connect” podcast. “And we think that the 777-300ER is the future of the widebody segment.”

The 2008-vintage prototype (37704, ex-Emirates) arrived in Wichita, Kansas, (IAB) in September 2021 and will soon undergo structural modification at Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR), with which KMC partnered to launch the 777-300ERCF conversion program in September 2020.

“We are convinced that they are the right people working on the product,” Thimm says.

Tune in to hear from Peters and Thimm as they speak with Lee in Amsterdam.

The freighter aircraft industry will gather Feb. 5-7 in Amsterdam for Cargo Facts EMEA 2024 to discuss the latest developments in the space. Ahead of the event, several industry leaders join this week’s episode of the “Cargo Facts Connect” podcast.

Joining Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee on the podcast are:

• George Seturidze, chief executive of Camex Airlines;
• Michael Hamelink, chief financial officer of Chisholm Enterprises and chief executive of Texel Air;
• Cristian Sutter, chief executive of Avensis Aviation; and
• Or Zak, chief commercial officer for Challenge Group.

Seturidze will join a narrowbody freighter panel on Tuesday, Feb. 6, during the conference. Camex obtained its Georgian AOC in August 2022 and operates a 737-800BCF and a 737-800SF. The company also created a Slovenian offshoot, Camex Adria Airlines, which received its AOC in December.

“I think 2024 will show us a lot of things regarding how the market will be improved for the future,” Seturidze says in this week’s podcast.

Hamelink will also join the Feb. 6 panel discussion. Bahrain-based Texel, which flies two 737-800BCFs, two 737-700FCs and one 737-300F, launched and placed three 737-800BCFs with new subsidiary Texel Air Australasia in 2023.

Wednesday, Feb. 7, will begin with a panel on widebody freighters featuring speakers including Avensis’ Sutter and Challenge Group’s Zak.

Avensis announced its A340 freighter conversion in 2023 with launch customer Universal Sky Courier and is targeting a 2026 certification for this next step in its range of cargo modifications.

Challenge Group operates three airlines based in Malta, Israel and Belgium, and has taken its first of four 767-300BDSF conversions. The group will soon also send the first of four 777-300ERs for conversion with IAI.

“I think if we are looking at the signals at the moment, it seems like the market is stabilizing and hopefully we can see a bit more of what we used to in terms of the seasonality,” Zak tells Cargo Facts.

Brazil-based Modern Logistics will soon deploy its first 737-800BCF to help grow the company’s international presence.

The 2004-vintage aircraft (33566, ex-Ryanair) arrived in October and has been undergoing certification with the Brazilian Civil Aviation Authority.

“We are in the final process with the regulator, and if everything goes well in the next three to four weeks, we expect to have the final certification by the beginning of February, before Carnival season in Brazil,” Modern Logistics Chief Executive Cristiano Koga says in this week’s episode of the “Cargo Facts Connect” podcast. “This is a very important milestone for us because we expect also the volumes to grow after the summertime vacation, which is taking place now in Brazil [until] the second half of February.”

Modern expects a second -800BCF later this year and plans to operate the two NGs alongside its Classics.

The NGs will focus more on cross-border flights, but Classics can also be used on the short hauls, Koga said.

“For example, for Uruguay and Argentina, we can fly with the Classics, but the NGS are much more effective for international flights and we’re going to dedicate that fleet primarily to the international routes and the Classics will not only be for domestic, but also charters that we have on a regular basis,” he said.

Koga, who was appointed in May 2023, said Modern has a market share of approximately 27% in Brazil but aims to have a double-digit share in other South American markets.

“We have very ambitious and aggressive plans to go overseas with our new aircraft, and to keep investing in those sectors that we believe value our value proposition,” he said.

Tune in to this week’s podcast to learn more on Modern’s plans as Koga speaks with Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee.