Freighter Movements

Lufthansa Cargo
The carrier has recently announced plans to further reduce its overall freighter capacity. Two further MD-11Fs will be retired from the fleet within the coming four weeks.
This will bring the number of MD-11Fs in service down to twelve aircraft.
Additionally Lufthansa Cargo operates five new state-of-the-art Boeing 777Fs and still have an option on a further five.
Whether the option for the remaing B777Fs will be taken up remains to be seen as the German carrier is presently (CargoForwarder Global reported earlier) in the process of implementing a €40 million cost reduction programme for its cargo arm.
This decision was taken following the announcement that LH Cargo had booked a €38 million loss for the first nine months of this year.
Cargo revenues have dropped by 8.3% in this period and load factors have dropped a further 4.7% down to 62.4%.

KLM starts B747-400 Combi phase out
The Dutch national carrier which still operates a fleet of sixteen B747-400M (Combi) aircraft has now started to phase these out of the fleet.
The decision, taken in 2013, originally stated that all Combis would be taken out of the KL fleet between 2016 and 2020.
One aircraft (PH-BFM) was parked at Teurel last month and will be completely removed from the fleet by January 2016.
A second aircraft (PH-BFO) will be removed by March of 2016.
There were plans to also remove the third B747-400M during the first quarter of 2016, but it seems this move has been postponed for the time being. Maybe because of deferred deliveries of the new B787 passenger aircraft.

AirBridgeCargo UK daughter gets first B747F
CargoLogicAir (not to be confused with the LH/DHL cargo operator Cargologic), the AirBridgeCargo UK freighter daughter airline has received its first B747-400F.
The aircraft with the UK registration G-CLAA which was previously in full AirBridgeCargo colours, was repainted in Cambridge, UK and delivered to the carrier at London’s Stansted airport on November 3rd.
The startup of operations is still subject to completion of securing the necessary Air Operators Certificate (AOC) from the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
This is not expected however to be a problem.

Etihad to add two more B777Fs to its fleet
The Abu Dhabi-based carrier, Etihad Aiways is to increase its freighter fleet by adding a further two Boeing 777F aircraft.
Etihad has firmed up two previous options for the aircraft and delivery is slotted for next year.
The airline which operates with more than 125 aircraft already has a dedicated freighter fleet made up of three B777Fs, four A330-200Fs, one B747-400F and a further B747-8F which is on lease from Atlas Air.

John Mc Donagh