Throughout 2024, freighter operators told Cargo Facts about the shortage of main-deck capacity in the market and how the situation will become more pronounced in the next few years with older aircraft like 747 conversions and MD-11s exiting service before the next generation of widebodies can arrive in sufficient numbers.
As a result, any large widebodies released throughout the year found new homes very quickly.
Meanwhile, one of the candidates aiming to replace the outgoing widebodies, IAI’s “Big Twin,” is nearing certification.
Here are the five most-read stories reported by Cargo Facts in 2024 involving widebody freighters.
1. Atlas steps away Amazon CMI
Atlas Air has long been a major CMI operator of Amazon’s freighters, but said in May that it would return seventeen 767-300Fs and eight 737-800BCFs to the e-tailer by June 2025 and focus its resources on international long-haul operations.
This is part of Atlas Air’s strategy, called “Atlas One,” to expand even more into the large-widebody segment and more lucrative high-utilization flying.
It later emerged that Amazon would place the seventeen 767s, owned by Atlas’s leasing arm Titan Aviation Leasing, with ABX Air and new CMI provider 21 Air. The 737-800BCFs, belonging to AerCap, will all join Sun Country Airlines.
2. 3 ex-AirBridgeCargo 747-8Fs find home with Atlas
In line with its Atlas One strategy, Atlas Air in 2024 added more large-widebody capacity than any other carrier. This included acquiring three 747-8Fs (60117, 60118 and 60119) that had not been in service since March 2022 when Russian sanctions grounded AirBridgeCargo.
Lessor BOC Aviation repossessed the three freighters after a lengthy legal process and has placed them with Atlas on long-term finance leases, it said in August.
All three aircraft have entered service.
3. Ethiopian takes last of own 767-300BDSF conversions
Ethiopian Airlines set up its own MRO facility as a conversion site for IAI’s 767-300BDSF program in 2021 and inducted its three remaining passenger 767-300ERs for conversion there.
The third unit (33769) completed conversion in 2024 and Ethiopian put it to work in September. All three 767-300BDSFs were part of a sale, purchase and leaseback deal that Ethiopian Airlines and Titan Aircraft Investments signed in 2022.
More recently, in December, Ethiopian leased Air Canada’s two production 767-300Fs while the first two conversions (33768 and 33767) appear to be parked.
4. Kalitta Air to expand with production, converted 777Fs
Kalitta Air’s fleet has remained mostly stable over the past couple of years, but at the beginning of 2024 the carrier told Cargo Facts that it expected to add three second-hand 777Fs on lease during the year along with a handful of 777-300ERSFs.
As Cargo Facts later reported, the three production 777Fs are units that DAE Capital had previously leased to Emirates.
The first aircraft (35608) arrived in Oscoda, Mich. (OSC), in early November and entered service shortly afterward, while the other two (35609 and 35610) are still in Dubai (DXB).
As for the 777-300ERSFs, Kalitta Air has yet to take delivery of any because IAI has not yet obtained certification for the type.
5. IAI enters final stretch of 777-300ERSF certification
IAI told Cargo Facts in January that it had received type inspection authorization, paving the way for it to begin certification flights with regulator personnel on board.
The certification effort has taken much longer than IAI had expected. In May, the company said it would send its 777-300ERSF prototype to the United States to conduct human factors certification flights.
After completing similar tests in Israel in September, the prototype (32789) arrived at OSC in late October. Then, a month later, IAI sent its second converted unit (32785) to Marana, Ariz. (MZJ) to certify the cargo-loading system.
IAI had not obtained certification for the 777-300ERSF program as of Dec. 20.
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