Amazon places first owned 767-300 freighter with ATSG operator Air Transport Services Group (ATSG) affiliate Air Transport International (ATI) has been awarded a CMI contract to operate the first 767-300BDSF that Amazon acquired outright and put through conversion on its own.
ATSG confirmed to Cargo Facts that the aircraft (25274, ex-WestJet) is now registered with ATI. Unit 25274 is currently in Wilmington (ILN), having been ferried to Victorville (VCV) in late February for modifications and paint after conversion in Tel Aviv (TLV).
For Amazon, incremental additions to its own-controlled freighter fleet have become a routine task. Unlike the other 767Fs in its operation, however, Amazon acquired and managed the conversion of unit 25274, and has so far not revealed who will operate the aircraft.
Last year Amazon acquired a total of eleven 767-300ERs, four from WestJet and seven from Delta Air Lines, and is having the aircraft converted to freighter configuration by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). Amazon said in early January that the four ex-WestJet frames will enter operation in 2021, while the ex-Delta aircraft will join the network in 2022, and will continue to use third-party CMI operators.
Amazon’s move to bypass the use of third-party lessors and aircraft management companies for aircraft procurement and conversion raised questions as to how CMI contracts for the incoming freighters would be allotted. Future deliveries could still end up with current Amazon Air 767 CMI operators, which include ATI, ABX Air and Atlas Air, or elsewhere. In the United States, Amerijet, 21 Air and Kalitta Air operate, or have operated, 767-300Fs on a CMI basis, and Cargojet is a major operator of the 767 platform in Canada.
In late February, while announcing its 2020 results, ATSG had expressed optimism that it would operate at least some of the Amazon-owned 767Fs, with CFO Quint Turner saying, “We might have a shot to fly a couple.”
In addition to the Amazon-owned aircraft that will soon enter service with ATI, ATSG’s Cargo Aircraft Management (CAM) continues to put 767-300ERs through freighter conversion that are expected to go into CMI service with ATSG affiliate carriers. Of the twelve additional leases Amazon announced last year, ATSG announced in September 2020 that ATI will operate six: one in 2020 and the others in 2021.
CAM has already placed four of these with Amazon in the first quarter of 2021, with another expected before the quarter is over, according to ATSG’s recent earnings announcement: 25450 in January; 29429 in February; and 27448 and 29432 in March. Unit 27059 began flying in the network March 18 but does not appear to have been officially leased to Amazon yet, according to the Federal Aviation Administration registry.
CAM will place two more 767-300Fs with Amazon between April and June, and the remaining four in the second half of the year.
New round of retirements prompts second look at 757 conversions Aircraft traders and operators of freighter-converted 757-200s that had looked beyond the platform to newer types or larger-gauge aircraft are circling back amid a recent wave of retirements.
Some current 757 freighter operators see newly available feedstock as an opportunity to delay fleet renewal decisions. One large 757F operator told Cargo Facts it continues to evaluate 757 conversions either for growth, or to replace aging 757 freighters in its fleet. Additionally, the availability of quality conversion feedstock could slow down the introduction of 737-800Fs and A321-200Fs for carriers already operating the 757, the source said.
Guam-based Asia Pacific Airlines had planned to add larger-gauge 767-300 freighters but has put those plans on hold due to scarce feedstock availability and long lead times for conversion slots. “It’s going to be twelve to fifteen months before we can get a slot,” Adam Ferguson, president of the airline, told Cargo Facts. “We’re going to have to wait until the next cycle for us to be able to kind of go that direction,” he said.
With carriers looking back to the 757, “the market is jumping right back into those as well,” said Ferguson, whose airline added its fourth 757-200PCF this year.
“I thought my 757 days were over back in 2019, when I sold my last airplane,” Jep Thornton, managing partner of aircraft trading company Aerolease Aviation, told Cargo Facts. “But here I am, because it just won’t go away,” he said, referring to a recently acquired 757-200. Between 2010 and 2019, Aerolease traded dozens of 757s, many of which are flying as freighters today.
Although at least 150 passenger-configured 757-200s continue to operate today, they are largely concentrated among a few carriers and, prior to the pandemic, many of those units were expected to long remain in passenger service. As of today, just five carriers — Delta Airlines, United Airlines, Icelandair, Azur Air and Royal Flight — operate more than five units of the type. Unlike in 2019, when just a few units were being considered for retirement, many 757-200 operators are looking at accelerated withdrawal schedules.
In early 2020, United Airlines forecasted 757-200 retirements beyond 2024, when the delivery of A321 XLRs from Airbus were to commence. That calculus has begun to change, with United Airlines announcing in January, concurrently with the release of its Q4 2020 earnings, that eleven of its older Pratt & Whitney PW2000-powered 757-200s grounded during the pandemic would be permanently retired.
Among the 757-200s in the United fleet, the Pratt-powered aircraft were mostly older–vintage, with six airframes under twenty-four years old, and five ranging in age from twenty-seven to nearly thirty-two years old.
While some of the younger airframes could end up in conversion, the PW2000 engines are expected to be the hotter commodity. “It could be more of an engine play,” said Thornton. The majority of freighter-converted 757s are powered by RB211s, which partially reflects large batches of feedstock released from American Airlines and Icelandair, but cargo carriers continue to add to their fleets 757-200Fs powered by both the PW2000 and RB211. During the current market correction, passenger airlines prefer to avoid shop visits, choosing instead to use available green time, Thornton said.
Engines remain at the crux of 757-200 conversion decisions. “I think that the 757-200 [freighter] would be much hotter, if there were a lot more engines out there,” said Ferguson. “You can’t find [PW2000] engines right now with more than four or five years of life on them for less than $5 million.”
Returning to United, the carrier continues to operate forty Rolls–Royce RB211-powered 757-200s, which could be more popular conversion candidates. “Everybody’s got their eye on the old Continental [757-200] fleet,” said Thornton.
Icelandair Group, which owned twenty-three RB211-powered 757-200s as of Dec. 30, 2020, is another carrier whose retirement schedule is being closely watched.
As recent conversion orders for 737NG and A321-family freighters have highlighted, startups and carriers without 757-200Fs in their fleets are more likely to forge ahead with newer types, according to the unnamed source.
Ethiopian takes first GA Telesis 737-800F Ethiopian Airlines has taken delivery of its third 737-800SF, on lease from GA Telesis [FATs 006077-6078]. The aircraft arrived at Ethiopian's Addis Ababa (ADD) hub this week, the carrier confirmed to Cargo Facts.
The 2002-vintage 737 (32903, ex-Pegasus) is owned by Florida-headquartered GA Telesis, and is the lessor’s first NG conversion. It was sent to Miami (MIA) in August 2020 ahead of induction for conversion by Aeronautical Engineers Inc. (AEI) at the Commercial Jet facility, and flew to Dothan (DHN) in mid-February for post-conversion modifications and paint.
Ethiopian told Cargo Facts that it plans to receive a fourth 737-800F around May 2021, but did not identify a specific frame. See our website for more recent 737-800 freighter conversion activity.
AviaAM, part of the Cyprus-headquartered Avia Solutions Group, has already sent its first 737-800 for conversion. The lessor confirmed to Cargo Facts that the aircraft was inducted early March, and is being converted to freighter configuration by Boeing at the Taikoo (Shandong) Aircraft Engineering Company Limited (STAECO) facility in Jinan (TNA), with redelivery expected in June.
The lessor declined to identify the frame but said that it was manufactured in 2001.
AviaAM told Cargo Facts that it plans to convert up to ten 737-800s over the next year and has so far committed to four more conversion slots in 2021. AviaAM currently has 2016- and 2018-vintage units on lease contracts, but is on the hunt for feedstock candidates to add to its portfolio. The lessor said it is preparing to finalize negotiations with potential lessees for the first aircraft, with a “strong emphasis” on Chinese cargo operators.
AviaAM’s decision to enter the 737-800 freighter market was dictated, it said, by the stagnation of the passenger market in the past year, as well as its parent’s gradual steps in recent years to expand its cargo activities. Avia Solutions Group fully acquired British charter broker Chapman Freeborn in 2019, and acquired Iceland-based Bluebird Nordic early last year.
In May 2020, Lithuania-based KlasJet — another subsidiary of Avia Solutions Group — began operating its first freighter, a 737-300F (25263, ex-Frontier) subleased from Bluebird Nordic. Meanwhile, an AviaAM subsidiary last summer acquired its first freighter, a 747-400F (26563, ex-El Al), and leased it to Air Atlanta Icelandic to operate on an ACMI basis on behalf of Magma Aviation, an affiliate of Chapman Freeborn.
More recently, SmartLynx Malta — also a subsidiary of Avia Solutions Group — revealed its own plans to begin freighter operations by leasing an A321-200PCF (891, ex-Air Mediterranee) and an A321-200P2F (1017, ex-R Airlines) from Luxembourg-based Vallair. In February, DHL Express announced that it will ACMI-lease the two units from SmartLynx.
It remains to be seen whether AviaAM will place any of its upcoming 737-800BCFs with Bluebird Nordic, which currently operates six 737-400Fs.
321 Precision Conversions closes in on A321PCF certification A second A321-200F program is preparing its first redelivery. 321 Precision Conversions, a joint venture of ATSG and Precision Aircraft Solutions, has completed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) flight testing program for the first freighter-converted A321-200PCF (891, ex-Air Mediterranee).
With the program now in its “final administrative phase,” a supplemental type certificate (STC) from the FAA is expected during the first half of this year. 321 Precision Conversions told Cargo Facts it has already started working with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and expects Europe’s equivalent to the FAA to validate an STC shortly after the program is certified in the United States.
321 Precision’s launch customer Vallair has leased the aircraft to SmartLynx Malta, which in turn has an ACMI deal with DHL to operate at least two A321Fs on behalf of the integrator. Vallair was also the launch customer for EFW’s A321-200P2F program and is expected to lease to SmartLynx A321-200 freighters converted by both 321 Precision Conversions and EFW. SmartLynx expects to add a total of four freighter-converted A321Fs in 2021, and up to four more next year, making it possible for DHL to test both STCs. “DHL has indicated they do plan to compare the airplanes,” said Mike Berger, CCO of ATSG, during an earnings call last month.
EFW redelivered the first A321-200P2F to Vallair last year, and the aircraft is now operating in the Qantas Freight fleet. EFW redelivered a second A321-200P2F to Titan Airways in January, on-lease from BBAM. The third A321-200P2F (1250, ex-Thomas Cook Airlines), also for BBAM and expected to go on lease to Titan, has completed conversion in Singapore (XSP).
Returning to the A321-200PCF, ATSG had been targeting FAA certification in March, but that issuance will likely happen in Q2. Type Inspection Authorization (TIA) flights have been completed, Brian McCarthy, VP Sales and Marketing of 321 Precision Conversions, told Cargo Facts. “We're done flying this airplane for the FAA and we're basically completing the administrative process, which includes the reviewing, critiquing and editing of manuals,” he said.
“We've done our level best at finding our way home through some very difficult months with the effects of COVID,” said McCarthy, noting that supply chains, workforces and regulatory authorities have all been affected by COVID. “We are now done flying and are looking forward to the final FAA comments and notes to proceed with the issuance of the STC,” he said.
Recent freighter aircraft transactions YTO Cargo Airlines inducted for conversion its first 767-300ER (33423, ex-Air Canada). The aircraft will be converted by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in Tel Aviv (TLV) [FAT 006074].
FedEx Express took delivery of a 767-300F (63122) from Boeing. The aircraft was ferried to Indianapolis (IND) [FAT 006076].
AerSale inducted for conversion a 757-200 (32400, ex-American Airlines) at its own facility in Goodyear (GYR) [FAT 006073].
SF Airlines took redelivery of a 757-200PCF (33098, ex-TUI Airways) [FAT 006075].
BlackRock placed an order for three more 737-800SF conversions with AEI [FATs 006085-6087].
Mexico-based TUM AeroCarga took delivery of a CRJ200PF (7209, ex- Amaszonas Uruguay), on lease from AvMax [FAT 006071].
