SHORT SHOTS

Air Incheon leases three B737-800F from Spectre
Seoul, Korea-based Air Incheon has announced the signing of a long-term lease with Spectre Air Capital in order to take three Boeing 737-800 freighters which are slotted to be delivered to the Korean carrier in the first months of 2017.
Spectre which is a Texas based aircraft lessor has an order with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for a total of fifteen B737-700 and -800 passenger to freighter configurations, of which three will go to Air Incheon.
The additional freighters will join Air Incheon’s present fleet of two B737-400F aircraft which are mainly utilized on its Korean domestic network and regional flights within Asia. 

Uruguay’s Air Class gets Chilean AOC
Montevideo-based Air Class Lineas Aereas has apparently been able to secure an Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) in Chile.
The AOC is said to have been recently awarded by Chile’s civil aviation directorate (DGAC) and Air Class has already opened an office in Santiago in order to set up operations in the Chilean market.
The AOC award to Air Class was possible due to Chile’s continued liberal aviation policy allowing foreign airlines to apply for and operate domestic services in the country,
This policy is tied to Chilean carriers having reciprocal rights in the foreign airline’s country as well.
Air Class operates with two aged B727-200 freighters as well as with three small Metroliner cargo aircraft.

Cargo Antitrust Litigation settlements are OK’d
There were still a total of four outstanding settlements in the Air Cargo Shipping Services Litigation being handled by a United States court and which originally had involved 28 different carriers.
The final four airlines involved: Air New Zealand, Air India, Air China and Polar Air Cargo have according to reports from the U.S. agreed on a final settlement with the court.
The court is said to have agreed on a settlement with each carrier and by doing so ends the marathon judiciary anti-trust cases against the twenty eight airlines which is said to have run past more than USD1.2 billion on settlement payments.

Atlas to take nine converted B767 BCFs
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, one of the world’s largest operators of Boeing 747 freighter aircraft has now officially announced that it will take nine converted passenger B767 BCF aircraft from the Boeing Converted Freighters (BCF) program.
It was announced already at this year’s UK Farnborough Airshow that Atlas would opt for four B767 freighter conversions, and now the five on top are also rumored to be slotted for Atlas Air’s cooperation with Amazon for domestic U.S. flights.

ASL Aviation to lease two B737-800 freighters
It seems that the Boeing 737-800 passenger to freighter (P2F) conversion program is fast picking up pace.
Dublin-based cargo and passenger operator, ASL Aviation Group will receive two ex-China Southern Airlines aircraft sometime in 2018.
The aircraft will be converted in Miami, Florida by Aeronautical Engineers Inc (AEI), who specialize in P2F conversions.
ASL Aviation intends to use both these aircraft to enhance their present operations and hopes to attract new clients with the introduction of the -800F which offers a far better range and payload than the present B737-400Fs.

Ningxia Cargo Airlines start-up fails
They have been talking about it for some time now, but have so far not got off the ground.
Ningxia Cargo Airlines, which was a proposed start-up cargo carrier operating out of Yinchuan Hedong International Airport, has it seems finally shelved any plans for a start of operations.
Ningxia was meant to be the first cargo carrier to be based in the western part of China and had originally planned to start operation back in 2015 with two to three B737-300 freighters operating on domestic routes within the area.
Market information strongly indicates that the carrier has folded up before it started and there will be no aircraft in the skies under their colours in the future.

Boeing to end its B747 passenger to freighter program through
Also the end of an era!
Boeing announced at the Cargo Facts Symposium a couple of weeks ago that they will finally put the lid on their B747-400 BCF conversion program.
This decision it seems has been expected for some time already as Boeing had previously indicated that there was no demand from the market for large wide body freighter conversions anymore.
The last converted BCF was delivered to Evergreen International some four years ago.

John Mc Donagh