Air France Readies For First Boeing 777 Freighter Delivery
French Carrier Reports Poor Q3, 2008 Results
Cargo Traffic Continues To Slide
Analyst Upbeat On Market Prospects For New Boeing Freighter
Around seven months after its first flight, the sixth member of the 777 family, the first 777 Freighter (777F) will later today be handed over to launch customer Air France. The first 777F delivered is in fact the third off the production line, with the two flight test airplanes due for delivery after refurbishment and removal of flight test equipment.
China Southern Airlines and Emirates Skycargo are also due to take delivery of their first respective 777F’s later this year.
Combined, the two test airframes completed around 300 flight hours with a further 600 hours of ground testing says Boeing.
FAA certification was achieved on February 3, 2009 with EASA certifying the type on February 6, 2009. The 777F was launched back in May 2005.
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Coupled with the 747, the 777F will provide seamless network integration for freight transfer using 10ft high industry standard pallets.
Air France aims to commence operations with the airplane next month.
“The 777 is the mainstay of our long-haul fleet and elemental to our success and future growth plans,” says Air France’s Pierre Vellay who is in charge of fleet planning at Europe’s biggest airline.
While the French airline suffered a big third quarter loss, the carrier remains committed to its new freighter fleet despite what it calls “extremely difficult conditions.” Cargo traffic saw a drop of 12.5% for the quarter compared to 2007 on load factors of just over 64%. Revenues too fell around 10%, highlighting the concerns aired by IATA about the swathe of airlines reporting huge drops in freight business.
However, Arran Aerospace’s Doug McVitie spoke to me and was markedly upbeat about the prospects for the 777F and the wider freight market in general.
“In one fell swoop with the combination of all-new 777 and 747-8 freighters, Boeing is tying up the much-neglected but increasingly important global cargo market without having had to resort to the excessive and ultimately over-extended lengths of the former Airbus A380F. Before the current global financial fiasco, IATA was confidently predicting even stronger long-term growth for air cargo than for passenger traffic, and assuming there is a recovery waiting out there somewhere, Boeing is perfectly poised to take advantage of future market growth with an optimised product which will set the standard for twin-engined long-haul air freight in much the same way that the 787 will do for the passenger.
Aerospace is not a snapshot business. It’s a long-cycle, conservative industry in which evolution not revolution is the byword,” says McVitie.
The 777F is evolutionary and is highly likely to do for the upper end of the cargo sector what the 777-300ER is doing for the self-loading freight side of the business. That’s got to be good news all-round,” he adds.
10 comments February 19th, 2009
