Air Cargo (non-Amazon/DHL) Thread - 2021

gdavis003 · Sun Jan 10, 2021 12:54 am

With the 2020 Peak Cargo thread having been closed, I think it makes sense to have a cargo thread to cover UPS, FedEx, DC-8s, and other air cargo related topics, not specific to COVID-19. Many enjoyable conversations were had in the Peak thread that will continue into the new year.

flyguy1 · Sun Jan 10, 2021 2:05 am

Air Belgium operared LGG-JFK-LGG today, with one of their A340's. Cool visitor, wonder how much cargo an A340 without pax can carry?

HPRamper · Sun Jan 10, 2021 2:22 am

re: increased Western Global flying for FedEx, I didn't have the chance to check today but if Atlas ops have wrapped up, it makes sense that WG jumped in on those routes. USPS volume has still not tapered off, my ramp alone had additional postal charters nearly every day this week, from 757 to MD10 in size.

HPRamper · Sun Jan 10, 2021 2:26 am

I'd also add I see no need to exclude Amazon and DHL from this thread from an airfleet standpoint. They are both major players the same as FX and 5X and as we saw this peak, there is so much interplay among them with the charter carriers like Atlas and Kalitta. They are all large pieces of the same cargo-moving puzzle.

CX747 · Sun Jan 10, 2021 2:56 am

All of the Aerotranscargo 747s are operational and find themselves working between Europe and Asia.

National's N756CA is preparing to blast out of the Former British Colony of Hong Kong for Anchorage.

WGN's N344KD aka Forty Fo is resting in ICN for about 48hrs. Maybe waiting for a slot into China.

Anyone have eyes on our DC-8F?

gdavis003 · Sun Jan 10, 2021 3:06 am

HPRamper wrote:
I'd also add I see no need to exclude Amazon and DHL from this thread from an airfleet standpoint. They are both major players the same as FX and 5X and as we saw this peak, there is so much interplay among them with the charter carriers like Atlas and Kalitta. They are all large pieces of the same cargo-moving puzzle.

Of course. We should definitely talk about them. I just meant to say that there were already dedicated threads for those (essentially just a note for mods to make the thread seem more viable). Can absolutely talk about them in here, and I hope we do

gdavis003 · Sun Jan 10, 2021 3:10 am

CX747 wrote:
All of the Aerotranscargo 747s are operational and find themselves working between Europe and Asia.

National's N756CA is preparing to blast out of the Former British Colony of Hong Kong for Anchorage.

WGN's N344KD aka Forty Fo is resting in ICN for about 48hrs. Maybe waiting for a slot into China.

Anyone have eyes on our DC-8F?

Looks like our good friend OB-2059-P took today off but did a MIA-PBM (Paramaribo, Suriname)-MIA run yesterday. Did the MGA (Managua, Nicaragua) run on Thursday. Kickin' it again!

wjcandee · Sun Jan 10, 2021 3:25 am

HPRamper wrote:
re: increased Western Global flying for FedEx, I didn't have the chance to check today but if Atlas ops have wrapped up, it makes sense that WG jumped in on those routes. USPS volume has still not tapered off, my ramp alone had additional postal charters nearly every day this week, from 757 to MD10 in size.

Which explains why it took until 1/8 for a Priority Mail 2-Day Envelope that I mailed at the Post Office on 1/2 to be delivered to Tennessee.

CX747 · Sun Jan 10, 2021 3:39 am

Just a little further info.

Skybus DC-8s:
Our DC-8-73-CF OB-2059-P continues to run out of MIA but took today off.

Sister shop N873SJ slipped South out of MIA in December for Peru. She has been operating off the grid since.

Western Global:
They picked up an ex Atlas factory made 747-400F during early 2020. Finally got it operational as N258SN. The jet operates like clock work LAX-ICN-HKG-ICN-ANC-LAX.

USAirKid · Sun Jan 10, 2021 4:32 am

wjcandee wrote:
HPRamper wrote:
re: increased Western Global flying for FedEx, I didn't have the chance to check today but if Atlas ops have wrapped up, it makes sense that WG jumped in on those routes. USPS volume has still not tapered off, my ramp alone had additional postal charters nearly every day this week, from 757 to MD10 in size.

Which explains why it took until 1/8 for a Priority Mail 2-Day Envelope that I mailed at the Post Office on 1/2 to be delivered to Tennessee.

Geez. I wonder where the bottleneck is?

If it’s a lack of air cargo capacity, at this point you might as well just truck the stuff since you wouldn’t lose much space.

The was pondering if they could do extra charters, like perhaps bring on UPS on Friday and Saturday when their fleet is down, or pull on passenger airlines just for the belly freight.

ThePointblank · Sun Jan 10, 2021 8:58 am

USAirKid wrote:
wjcandee wrote:
HPRamper wrote:
re: increased Western Global flying for FedEx, I didn't have the chance to check today but if Atlas ops have wrapped up, it makes sense that WG jumped in on those routes. USPS volume has still not tapered off, my ramp alone had additional postal charters nearly every day this week, from 757 to MD10 in size.

Which explains why it took until 1/8 for a Priority Mail 2-Day Envelope that I mailed at the Post Office on 1/2 to be delivered to Tennessee.

Geez. I wonder where the bottleneck is?

If it’s a lack of air cargo capacity, at this point you might as well just truck the stuff since you wouldn’t lose much space.

The was pondering if they could do extra charters, like perhaps bring on UPS on Friday and Saturday when their fleet is down, or pull on passenger airlines just for the belly freight.

Sometimes, it's really hard to judge the exact balance that's going onto a flight and stuff gets left behind and by then it's too late to figure out alternative options until the next day.

Certain customers, depending on their agreements with the couriers, have sometimes have priority over anyone else for making it onto a flight. The company I work for for example, has such an agreement with FedEx in that certain packages from us that are appropriately marked are given priority loading.

HPRamper · Sun Jan 10, 2021 5:44 pm

USAirKid wrote:
wjcandee wrote:
HPRamper wrote:
re: increased Western Global flying for FedEx, I didn't have the chance to check today but if Atlas ops have wrapped up, it makes sense that WG jumped in on those routes. USPS volume has still not tapered off, my ramp alone had additional postal charters nearly every day this week, from 757 to MD10 in size.

Which explains why it took until 1/8 for a Priority Mail 2-Day Envelope that I mailed at the Post Office on 1/2 to be delivered to Tennessee.

Geez. I wonder where the bottleneck is?

If it’s a lack of air cargo capacity, at this point you might as well just truck the stuff since you wouldn’t lose much space.

The was pondering if they could do extra charters, like perhaps bring on UPS on Friday and Saturday when their fleet is down, or pull on passenger airlines just for the belly freight.

It's somewhere on the USPS end - which is technically both ends. We've certainly had the air lift capacity - they have a set matrix they are guaranteed space for, if they say hey we need extra space we've been able to give them that as well - but when it gets unloaded it goes back to a postal facility for sortation and it's there I think things are sitting for a while.

I'd like to note, that just because the USPS requests a dedicated charter doesn't mean it will happen. My office phone rings and it's a controller at GOC in MEM asking me if my ramp can handle an additional charter based on gate space and staffing. If I already have scheduled flights taking all my gates up, I say no. If all my handlers have gone home already, I say no. The controller says "OK I'll pass it along, thank you" and then they get on the phone with PDX or GEG or whoever to see if they can take the flight and then perhaps truck the volume over there to be loaded.

gdavis003 · Sun Jan 10, 2021 7:36 pm

OB-2059-P back in action today with a round trip to Santo Domingo, DR. Like clockwork. Don't remember Santo Domingo being a previous destination though, seems to usually go a bit further south in the Caribbean/South America, unless it's Managua

CX747 · Sun Jan 10, 2021 8:41 pm

gdavis003 wrote:
OB-2059-P back in action today with a round trip to Santo Domingo, DR. Like clockwork. Don't remember Santo Domingo being a previous destination though, seems to usually go a bit further south in the Caribbean/South America, unless it's Managua

Love it.

Does anyone have the back story to this cargo operation and why they have hung their hat on the DC-8F? As discussed previously, they have 2 birds, 1 of which is back in Peru and off the radar.

Do we know how many viable DC-8Fs are out there? Do we know what the per hour cost of a DC-8F vs an A321/757 is? What the price difference is in leasing or buying a Diesel 8? With the cargo market the way it is, do we see other interesting operators fire up with birds of yesterdecade?

wjcandee · Sun Jan 10, 2021 10:23 pm

gdavis003 wrote:
OB-2059-P back in action today with a round trip to Santo Domingo, DR. Like clockwork. Don't remember Santo Domingo being a previous destination though, seems to usually go a bit further south in the Caribbean/South America, unless it's Managua

Good catch! Not contradicting you, but for a little more perspective, she did fly to SDQ on 12/20 and 12/28. As you suggest, she has been generally going to the Caribbean and Central America, as well as into the northern part of South America (Suriname and Guyana). In the Caribbean, you are correct that her destinations like UVF (St Lucia) and BGI (Barbados) are well-past the DR on a southbound trek, but SXM isn't that far from the DR. It's actually a nice assortment of interesting destinations. I would take a ride along! :smile:

MO11 · Mon Jan 11, 2021 1:36 am

I'm still sure it's for StratAir:

https://www.stratair.net/schedule-and-routes/

In September 2018, Skybus did receive foreign charter authority to operate from any US point to any point outside the US. So, charter for StratAir.

wjcandee · Mon Jan 11, 2021 6:37 am

MO11, you are again (and still) the Oracle!

wjcandee · Mon Jan 11, 2021 6:42 am

Just as a note: UPS has started up the 767 LFDS (Large Format Display System) installations again. (Also called LDS.) They're running one line at Cascade Aerospace at YXX, which did all the 757s already and is now doing a line of 767s, and two lines at AMES at ILN.

N345UP went to YXX on 1/2/21.
N339UP went to ILN today, 1/10/21.

Each vendor takes 2 weeks to complete an aircraft, and UPS seems to stagger them at ILN so that they take in one a week and put out one a week.

747classic · Mon Jan 11, 2021 9:50 am

Etihad 777F A6-DDA was flown at Jan 2th to New Iberia (ARA) after operated on behalf of FedEx during the peak.
The aircraft has been purchased by FedEX : a FedEx livery will be applied at Aviation Exteriors Louisiana (AvEx) after (conformity) maintenance.
The aircraft will be listed in the FAA registry with the registration N840FD. ( already reserved by FedEx)

Aircraft data : 777-FFX, L/N 939, C/N 39682, A6-DDA, F/F 12 Jun 2011, Del 21 Jun 2011.

TropicalSky · Mon Jan 11, 2021 7:33 pm

is FEDEX that short on planes they choose to make this purchase or is it case of it being a cheap to acquire ?

747classic wrote:
Etihad 777F A6-DDA was flown at Jan 2th to New Iberia (ARA) after operated on behalf of FedEx during the peak.
The aircraft has been purchased by FedEX : a FedEx livery will be applied at Aviation Exteriors Louisiana (AvEx) after (conformity) maintenance.
The aircraft will be listed in the FAA registry with the registration N840FD. ( already reserved by FedEx)

Aircraft data : 777-FFX, L/N 939, C/N 39682, A6-DDA, F/F 12 Jun 2011, Del 21 Jun 2011.

klm617 · Mon Jan 11, 2021 7:35 pm

Delta has started 3 weekly Detroit to Brussels Cargo flights

CALMSP · Mon Jan 11, 2021 7:44 pm

747classic wrote:
Etihad 777F A6-DDA was flown at Jan 2th to New Iberia (ARA) after operated on behalf of FedEx during the peak.
The aircraft has been purchased by FedEX : a FedEx livery will be applied at Aviation Exteriors Louisiana (AvEx) after (conformity) maintenance.
The aircraft will be listed in the FAA registry with the registration N840FD. ( already reserved by FedEx)

Aircraft data : 777-FFX, L/N 939, C/N 39682, A6-DDA, F/F 12 Jun 2011, Del 21 Jun 2011.

I thought this was strange when I read about this. Given such a large demand for cargo right now, wonder why EY would dump something that can make them money.

UA flew a 789 cargo only flight ATL-FRA last night.

Spacepope · Mon Jan 11, 2021 8:37 pm

CALMSP wrote:
747classic wrote:
Etihad 777F A6-DDA was flown at Jan 2th to New Iberia (ARA) after operated on behalf of FedEx during the peak.
The aircraft has been purchased by FedEX : a FedEx livery will be applied at Aviation Exteriors Louisiana (AvEx) after (conformity) maintenance.
The aircraft will be listed in the FAA registry with the registration N840FD. ( already reserved by FedEx)

Aircraft data : 777-FFX, L/N 939, C/N 39682, A6-DDA, F/F 12 Jun 2011, Del 21 Jun 2011.

I thought this was strange when I read about this. Given such a large demand for cargo right now, wonder why EY would dump something that can make them money.

UA flew a 789 cargo only flight ATL-FRA last night.

Sounds like Fedex needs more organic lift right now and Etihad saw an opportunity to dump a freighter at a good price before the belly cargo on pax flights returns. With all the WGA lift Fedex is still using now after peak (technically still peak but mods are gonna be mods) perhaps FX is learning why they should probably be doing more of this in-house.

wjcandee · Tue Jan 12, 2021 9:39 am

I'm up late, and I was kind of missing CX747's nightly tales of exotic 747 trips by our favorite Kazakhstan-based airline, so I thought I would do a Where Are They Now about my own characters from Peak.

CURRENT WESTERN GLOBAL:

Most of the MD11 fleet went immediately either to SHV or RSW for some TLC, while a few stayed behind to continue helping FedEx. Some have now emerged and gotten back to work, while it looks like the stay-behinds will now get their own time in the Spa. As usual, some scattered broken frames here and there.

The pilots will soon be ALPA, which will certainly have some kind of effect on the place going forward. We'll see what that is.

Active Fleet:

747s:
344KD A little military, mostly Asia flying. Presently in ORD after a trip from Shanghai.
356KD Still in CAE, where it has been since December 20 (22 days) since hitting that light pole on the tarmac. Either it's WGN being WGN, or the damage was worse than we thought.
258SN Very active since entering service, their only 744-Factory-F. Been doing primarily LAX-ICN-HKG-ICN-ANC-LAX. Currently in LAX.

MD11s:
411SN Left SHV on 1/6 after maint. Done a couple of round-trips LAX-TNA with the usual stops along the way.
412SN Broken at ANC. Left SHV on 1/7 after maint. Flew to YHZ, then to ANC same-day. Did an air return to ANC 1.5 hours towards ICN. Been there since. Presumably the fish flew onwards.
415JN Flying for FedEx. MEM-HNL and MEM-LAX.
512JN Lightly-used on military routes since leaving RSW on 1/2. Mostly NGU, Rota, Sigonella and Sudan. Now at HHN.
513SN Didn't take a break. Went from UPS straight to FedEx, flying MEM-ONT and MEM-HNL. Now at MEM for 2 days.
581JN Didn't take a break, either. Still flying MEM-ONT and MEM-HNL for FedEx. And the Mods say Peak is over... Currently in the air to MEM from HNL.
799JN Resting at MEM for 6 days. Hasn't been to the spa yet.
542KD 3-day spa at RSW 12/24-27/20 after UPS. Been flying LAX-China ever since.
543JN Needs more TLC: Flew to SHV on 12/24 after UPS. Exited 1/4 and flew to NGU for military work, but then instead to MEM and then back to SHV, where she sits since 1/8.
545JN Needs more TLC: Flew to RSW on 12/24 after UPS. Exited 1/9 and flew RSW-ANC-ICN-China-ICN-ANC-ORD over 2 days. Now headed back to RSW.
546JN Not flying. Has been in maintenance at SHV since May 23, 2020, so almost 8 months. Oy.
---
Rest of the fleet:

MD11s:
435KD Still marooned at SHV. Came to SHV from Desert 5/3/20
804SN SHV from Desert 6/29/2018. Sad.

CURRENT SKY LEASE CARGO:

744Fs:

903AR: Was flying Asia heavily, but recently added a few South America round-trips. Recently landed in GEO, after seeing SJU, SAL and LIM in the past coupla days.
904AR: Maintenance at HAECO Xiamen since 12/27/20. Hope they paint her!! Preferably in the repurposed Centurion livery.

CURRENT SKYBUS JET CARGO (HVY) DC8-73CF:

OB-2059-P: Didn't fly 1/11, but otherwise been doing daily trips on our favorite routes. MO11 tells me it's for StratAir, a Saltchuk company (which also owns Northern Air Cargo among many, many other shipping-related companies).

CURRENT IFL 727s:

281FL Back on Amerijet. Currently flying to SJU.
215WE Back on Amerijet. Flew to KIN earlier today.
216WE Still in maint at PTK (since 12/24).

CURRENT Kalitta II 727s (except for Air Horse One -- 725CK):

724CK Flying for DHL mostly to Canada.
726CK Substituting for Air Horse One while it's in the shop in OSC. (725CK). Currently at LEX.
729CK Was doing Amerijet, but flew to OSC for a couple of days on 1/8, then returned to MIA. Now, she's scheduled out to ANU but not for Amerijet. Huh.
Bonus plane: 737-300 freighter 331CK: Apparently for IBC, Island hopping out of MIA, last trip from SDQ-MIA.

CURRENT Longtail Aviation 747-400s (Bermuda):

VQ-BWS Flying mostly HKG-Uzbekistan-LGG and the like this week.
VQ-BWT Flying like her sister now, mostly to MST.

CURRENT Asia Pacific Airlines 757s:

N754CS Never made it to Peak in the US. Currently at Aviation Technical Services (ATS) at MCI (since 11/4/20).

As far as our favorite ATSG 767s go, here's the breakdown:

N376AN: Still flying military but likely to go to Amazon in mid-March.
N381AN: Officially dry-leased by CAM to Amazon right after Peak. Didn't even put her Amazon number on her or repaint her. Just threw her in (solely) on Amazon routes. Operated still by ATI.
N392AN: Flying HNL-SEA-LAX-HNL still for Aloha. Will be going to Amazon, probably in late February. We will see whether Aloha has their own jet (and ETOPS) for this route by then, and if not who gets it.

MO11 · Tue Jan 12, 2021 2:59 pm

Pretty sure N331CK is operating for Strat Air. Those routes were being flown by Northern Air Cargo and Swift Air previously. In fact, Swift Air is back doing them again (after flying that GSO-ONT USPS route for a couple of weeks).

Delta28L · Tue Jan 12, 2021 4:28 pm

DHL orders 8 more 777Fs
Atlas orders 4 more 747-8Fs

Spacepope · Tue Jan 12, 2021 5:13 pm

Delta28L wrote:
DHL orders 8 more 777Fs
Atlas orders 4 more 747-8Fs

A nice chunk of capacity there as new build freighters. Continued expansion, 744Fs burning through hours and cycles much quicker in heavy use during the time of Covid, or just trying to move away from chartering transatlantic lift from WGA or ABX?

747classic · Tue Jan 12, 2021 5:24 pm

Delta28L wrote:
DHL orders 8 more 777Fs

Source for this 2021 order ?

wjcandee · Tue Jan 12, 2021 6:08 pm

747classic wrote:
Delta28L wrote:
DHL orders 8 more 777Fs

Source for this 2021 order ?

I didn't write the post, so it's not my "source", but here's more information if that's what you're asking. https://www.dpdhl.com/en/media-relation ... hters.html

wjcandee · Tue Jan 12, 2021 6:13 pm

Delta28L wrote:
Atlas orders 4 more 747-8Fs

That's UPS's loss, as their new bean-counter CEO from outside the company took a pass on them, and then bragged about it.

Each to their own, I guess.

Glad Atlas stepped up, and that the frames will be built.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/atlas-ai ... 00187.html

UPS Pilot · Tue Jan 12, 2021 6:35 pm

wjcandee wrote:
Delta28L wrote:
Atlas orders 4 more 747-8Fs

That's UPS's loss, as their new bean-counter CEO from outside the company took a pass on them, and then bragged about it.

Each to their own, I guess.

Glad Atlas stepped up, and that the frames will be built.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/atlas-ai ... 00187.html

Figures.... Bought Lufthansa MD-11's when the MD-11 fleet was to start retracting but passes on additional 748's. The tripping over quarters to pick up nickels mentality is strong in this one.

wjcandee · Tue Jan 12, 2021 7:11 pm

UPS Pilot wrote:
wjcandee wrote:
Delta28L wrote:
Atlas orders 4 more 747-8Fs

That's UPS's loss, as their new bean-counter CEO from outside the company took a pass on them, and then bragged about it.

Each to their own, I guess.

Glad Atlas stepped up, and that the frames will be built.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/atlas-ai ... 00187.html

Figures.... Bought Lufthansa MD-11's when the MD-11 fleet was to start retracting but passes on additional 748's. The tripping over quarters to pick up nickels mentality is strong in this one.

Y'all must love this one.

From the Fortune article about her coming out of retirement, an important initiative is: "How we can introduce technology to eliminate the people tasks?" If Bezos said it that directly, they'd be standing with pitchforks in front of Amazon facilities.

Or this about bedrock principles: "Our brand relevance—and relevance is about doing good, be it our approach to social justice, or philanthropy, or diversity and inclusion." To me, brand relevance is mostly about reliably delivering stuff at a fair price, but whatever.

Or quoting Alinsky, even if she doesn't know it -- yikes!: “A crisis is a terrible opportunity to waste.”

https://fortune.com/longform/ups-ceo-ca ... depot-cfo/

It's not all terrible -- she's a smart politician. Touch all the constituencies when speaking. But sometimes, just running a good, solid operation and being fair with your employees goes a long way to affecting all the other metrics people want to talk about.

ottergoose · Tue Jan 12, 2021 7:30 pm

Glad to see the spirit of the peak thread living on here! As an addendum to the Peak 2020 thread, here are the mainline cargo departures for FedEx, UPS, and several of the wet-lease operators aggregated together, 1 November through 11 January; certainly appears that peak season is over.

I look forward for another year of informative discussion, cheers!

747classic · Tue Jan 12, 2021 7:35 pm

UPS Pilot wrote:
wjcandee wrote:
Delta28L wrote:
Atlas orders 4 more 747-8Fs

That's UPS's loss, as their new bean-counter CEO from outside the company took a pass on them, and then bragged about it.

Each to their own, I guess.

Glad Atlas stepped up, and that the frames will be built.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/atlas-ai ... 00187.html

Figures.... Bought Lufthansa MD-11's when the MD-11 fleet was to start retracting but passes on additional 748's. The tripping over quarters to pick up nickels mentality is strong in this one.

Perhaps the two secondhand Saudia 747-8F's, stored since Jan 2020, are to be picked up by UPS, more in line with the LH MD11's (short term profit )

UPS Pilot · Tue Jan 12, 2021 7:37 pm

Great point.

UPS Pilot · Tue Jan 12, 2021 7:47 pm

wjcandee wrote:
UPS Pilot wrote:
wjcandee wrote:

That's UPS's loss, as their new bean-counter CEO from outside the company took a pass on them, and then bragged about it.

Each to their own, I guess.

Glad Atlas stepped up, and that the frames will be built.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/atlas-ai ... 00187.html

Figures.... Bought Lufthansa MD-11's when the MD-11 fleet was to start retracting but passes on additional 748's. The tripping over quarters to pick up nickels mentality is strong in this one.

Y'all must love this one.

From the Fortune article about her coming out of retirement, an important initiative is: "How we can introduce technology to eliminate the people tasks?" If Bezos said it that directly, they'd be standing with pitchforks in front of Amazon facilities.

Or this about bedrock principles: "Our brand relevance—and relevance is about doing good, be it our approach to social justice, or philanthropy, or diversity and inclusion." To me, brand relevance is mostly about reliably delivering stuff at a fair price, but whatever.

Or quoting Alinsky, even if she doesn't know it -- yikes!: “A crisis is a terrible opportunity to waste.”

https://fortune.com/longform/ups-ceo-ca ... depot-cfo/

It's not all terrible -- she's a smart politician. Touch all the constituencies when speaking. But sometimes, just running a good, solid operation and being fair with your employees goes a long way to affecting all the other metrics people want to talk about.

I'm retired now. Going to be fun to watch on the sidelines. I agree with you about brand recognition. Remember this ad? That ship has sailed. https://youtu.be/J4bdiVn6NYg

jreeves96 · Tue Jan 12, 2021 8:47 pm

Delta28L wrote:
DHL orders 8 more 777Fs
Atlas orders 4 more 747-8Fs

I'm gonna place a bet and say...

AeroLogic gets 4 777s.
Southern gets 2.
Kalitta gets 2.

wjcandee · Tue Jan 12, 2021 9:57 pm

Ottergoose: Great graph. Looks like the volume in the red area is pretty-similar to before. FedEx seems to be the biggest reduction, while UPS seems not to have reduced as much. Interesting, given that FedEx has all those Postal departures to do.

wjcandee · Tue Jan 12, 2021 9:59 pm

UPS Pilot wrote:
Remember this ad? That ship has sailed. https://youtu.be/J4bdiVn6NYg

That was THAT long ago? I remember it like yesterday. Yikes.

N27UADIESEL8 · Wed Jan 13, 2021 12:09 am

jreeves96 wrote:
Delta28L wrote:
DHL orders 8 more 777Fs
Atlas orders 4 more 747-8Fs

They have not said who is gonna operate these batch.

We are still pending delivery of 4 from the original order of 14 back in 2018.

I would say it sounds about right....

I'm gonna place a bet and say...

AeroLogic gets 4 777s.
Southern gets 2.
Kalitta gets 2.

Spacepope · Wed Jan 13, 2021 1:26 am

Youtube popped this kinda long spotting video up at MIA. It catches the Skybus DC-8 at about 5:10 in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTMcS8k3Dr4

wjcandee · Wed Jan 13, 2021 4:57 am

Spacepope wrote:
Youtube popped this kinda long spotting video up at MIA. It catches the Skybus DC-8 at about 5:10 in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTMcS8k3Dr4

Great find! I also enjoyed a few things: noting the MAX take off, noting that AA is now using 777s to fly MIA-DFW, MIA-CLT, etc., b/c the 767s are gone, noting the quietness of the A320NEO's LEAPs on Frontier. But our Gal was the best thing on there!!!

She was back in the air today, flying MIA-BGI-SVD-MIA. So a good day.

Spacepope · Wed Jan 13, 2021 5:16 am

It’s good to be able to hear the things we talk about daily here, even from a spotters point on a parking deck it seems. Those first gen CFM56s have a distinct sound.

Guess AA has cycles to burn for 90 minute flights to their CLT crew base on the 772 since there still seems to be no possible conversion program, but I guess it keeps the pilots current.

There’s another spotter out of the Bahamas that catches some of the really old metal doing the short Florida hops, I’ll post when something exotic comes in like an old 3 man crew A300 from Venezuela.

MO11 · Wed Jan 13, 2021 5:21 pm

wjcandee wrote:
But our Gal was the best thing on there!!!

She was back in the air today, flying MIA-BGI-SVD-MIA. So a good day.

Noticed today that Titan Airways received DOT authority to operate subservice between the US and the Caribbean, Central America, South America on behalf of Amerijet. Didn't say whether it would be a 737 or A321. This may also mean the days of the DC-8 are numbered.

wjcandee · Wed Jan 13, 2021 5:47 pm

MO11 wrote:
wjcandee wrote:
But our Gal was the best thing on there!!!

She was back in the air today, flying MIA-BGI-SVD-MIA. So a good day.

Noticed today that Titan Airways received DOT authority to operate subservice between the US and the Caribbean, Central America, South America on behalf of Amerijet. Didn't say whether it would be a 737 or A321. This may also mean the days of the DC-8 are numbered.

Or they're just replacing the constantly-breaking Doug and IFL 727s. Also, I thought you thought that the DC8 was working for StratAir? I notice that one of the Doug 727s that is flying South isn't using an Amerijet flight number, and so may be flying for whomever the Doug 733 is flying for, or somebody else entirely.

OR...what's going on is that DHL for some reason wants Amerijet to fly more routes for it. Probably price as a big factor. Amerijet doesn't have the metal to do it right now, but would love the DHL business. Maybe they're locking it in by getting subservice from Titan.

gdavis003 · Wed Jan 13, 2021 6:01 pm

wjcandee wrote:
MO11 wrote:
wjcandee wrote:
But our Gal was the best thing on there!!!

She was back in the air today, flying MIA-BGI-SVD-MIA. So a good day.

Noticed today that Titan Airways received DOT authority to operate subservice between the US and the Caribbean, Central America, South America on behalf of Amerijet. Didn't say whether it would be a 737 or A321. This may also mean the days of the DC-8 are numbered.

Or they're just replacing the constantly-breaking Doug and IFL 727s. Also, I thought you thought that the DC8 was working for StratAir? I notice that one of the Doug 727s that is flying South isn't using an Amerijet flight number, and so may be flying for whomever the Doug 733 is flying for, or somebody else entirely.

OR...what's going on is that DHL for some reason wants Amerijet to fly more routes for it. Probably price as a big factor. Amerijet doesn't have the metal to do it right now, but would love the DHL business. Maybe they're locking it in by getting subservice from Titan.

In 2019, I’m pretty sure that the Doug 733 was operating for IBC, as there was a decal on the tail for IBC

That could have changed though. Decal might have been removed, and it could now be operating for Strat Air.

Spacepope · Wed Jan 13, 2021 6:04 pm

Another strange one. 722F N356PA, parked at ROW for..... a very long time, was reported to be registered for Aersale by http://www.skyliner-aviation.de.

We've seen Aeronaves pull decades-long parked narrowbody freighters out of the desert before (the Evergreen DC91Fs) but does this signal the revival of this former Eastern/PanAm/Kiwi bird? Needs engines, but the cockpit as of 2015 looks very complete so maybe?

MO11 · Wed Jan 13, 2021 8:07 pm

wjcandee wrote:
MO11 wrote:
wjcandee wrote:
But our Gal was the best thing on there!!!

She was back in the air today, flying MIA-BGI-SVD-MIA. So a good day.

Noticed today that Titan Airways received DOT authority to operate subservice between the US and the Caribbean, Central America, South America on behalf of Amerijet. Didn't say whether it would be a 737 or A321. This may also mean the days of the DC-8 are numbered.

OR...what's going on is that DHL for some reason wants Amerijet to fly more routes for it. Probably price as a big factor. Amerijet doesn't have the metal to do it right now, but would love the DHL business. Maybe they're locking it in by getting subservice from Titan.

Amerijet also flies for StratAir. But as you note, some of the Amerijet 767s have been repurposed, replaced in the Caribbean with other charters.

MO11 · Thu Jan 14, 2021 1:26 am

In fact, I checked. Only two Amerijet airplanes are flying Amerijet routes, The remainder are flying for DHL, FedEx and UPS.

sp98 · Thu Jan 14, 2021 1:44 am

Air Atlanta Icelandic 747-400 from GSP to HHN diverted back to GSP shortly after takeoff. Anyone know why?
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ABD ... /KGSP/KGSP

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