Cargojet to off load four Boeing 757 jets

Air cargo operator Cargojet is slimming down its fleet as it struggles to deal with a massive downturn in business despite recently giving shareholders a 10% increase in dividends. 

The Canadian carrier is cutting capacity and trying to preserve its strong cash flows by offering at least four of its converted Boeing 757 aircraft up for sale according to the airline's Chief Financial Officer Scott Calver during a third-quarter results call. 

The planes will continue to be available for other companies to lease until they are sold the airline confirmed. Earlier this year Cargojet sold one Boeing 777-300 aircraft for $36 million resulting in a loss on sale of $3.6 million. Two Boeing 777-300 hulls suffered significant damage due to severe hailstorms, the airline assessed the damage cost $13.8 million, for which the insurers paid  $12.2 million. Cargojet has also paused all planned conversions on 767s and 777s. 

After launching Cargojet 22 years ago as Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ajay Virmani will be stepping into the role of Executive Chairman effective January 1, 2024 and the Corporation has announced leadership appointments in a separate announcement. This strategic move reflects Dr. Virmani’s dedication to the company’s long-term success and the need to ensure a seamless transition in the leadership.

Dr. Ajay Virmani, who has served as the CEO since its inception in 2001, along with the team he built, has been instrumental in Cargojet’s remarkable journey from a start-up to Canada’s #1 cargo airline. Just last week Dr. Virmani was appointed to the Order of Ontario.  The Globe and Mail honored Dr. Virmani as the CEO-Strategist of the year in 2020. In 2004, Dr. Virmani was awarded the “Entrepreneur of the Year award” by Ernst &Younge. Recognizing his entrepreneurial and philanthropic contribution to Canada, he was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame with his own star in 2021. Cargojet and its leadership has also been recognized as the 50 Best Managed Companies by Deloitte’s and has been a consistent winner of Canada’s Best Cargo Airline award 21 years running.

DHL 757 Crash investigation underway

A DHL Boeing 757 cargo jet slid off the runway and broke in half while landing at San Jose’s international airport Thursday, causing major disruption and delays.  The local fire department reported the 757 had taken off from Juan Santamaría Airport just west of the capital, but the crew, who survived the crash, chose to return after reporting hydraulic system failure.

Upon landing the aircraft broke up, the fire department said “Units mobilized to remove the pilot and co-pilot.  Then they applied foam to prevent a spill and now they are working on an earthen dike to avoid any fuel from reaching the drainage system.”

DHL said in a statement that the pilots had been taken for medical evaluation and it was working with local authorities to both investigate the incident and move the aircraft.

Luis Miranda, deputy director of civil aviation for Costa Rica, told local media that the aircraft had only managed to get around 35 miles from the airport when the pilot asked to turn back. He advised the pilot and co-pilot were the only crew on the jet at the time of the crash and the plane was carrying enough fuel for around 2½ hours flying.

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United will be the first airline to resume service between Scotland and the United States

The U.S. mega-carrier United Airlines has confirmed it will resume daily nonstop services between Scotland and the United States starting 5 March 2022. United says it will resume its year-round daily nonstop service between Edinburgh and New York - Newark. 

The airline is also set to resume daily nonstop seasonal services from Edinburgh to Chicago O’Hare and Washington D.C. on 7 May 2022. It is the first airline to resume service between Scotland and the United States and will offer more services between Scotland and the U.S. than any other airline. 

“We are delighted to return to Scotland in 2022 and resume nonstop services from Edinburgh to the United States,” said Bob Schumacher, United’s Director Sales U.K. and Ireland. “With the return of services, our customers in Edinburgh can once again take advantage of direct connections to the U.S., as well as an unrivalled route network from United’s hubs at New York/Newark, Chicago and Washington, D.C., offering convenient nonstop connections to 129 destinations across the Americas.” 

“It’s incredibly exciting to be resuming our transatlantic services with United to allow direct travel between Scotland and the USA for the first time in two years. It will allow families to reunite, friends to reconnect and re-open the strong tourism destinations on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Gordon Dewar, Edinburgh Airport’s Chief Executive.  

 

Edinburgh (EDI) – New York/Newark (EWR) 

 

Flight	From	To	Depart	Arrive	Frequency	Aircraft	Dates of operation
UA37	EDI	EWR	09:40	12:20	Daily	Boeing 757-200	5 March 2022 onwards
UA36	EWR	EDI	20:20	08:05 +1	Daily	Boeing 757-200	4 March 2022 onwards

All times are local and subject to change. 

 

Edinburgh (EDI) – Chicago O’Hare (ORD) 

 

Flight	From	To	Depart	Arrive	Frequency	Aircraft	Dates of operation
UA119	EDI	ORD	11:30	13:55	Daily	Boeing 757-200	7 May 2022 onwards
UA118	ORD	EDI	18:15	7:50 +1	Daily	Boeing 757-200	6 May 2022 onwards

All times are local and subject to change. 

 

Edinburgh (EDI) – Washington D.C. (IAD) 

 

Flight	From	To	Depart	Arrive	Frequency	Aircraft	Dates of Operation
UA979	EDI	IAD	12:30	15:10	Daily	Boeing 757-200	7 May 2022 onwards
UA978	IAD	EDI	22:25	10:40 +1	Daily	Boeing 757-200	6 May 2022 onwards

United’s year-round daily nonstop service from Edinburgh to New York/Newark and seasonal daily nonstop services from Edinburgh to Chicago O’Hare and Washington D.C. will be operated with Boeing 757-200 aircraft, featuring a total of 169 seats – 16 flat-bed seats in United Polaris business class and 153 in economy, including 45 Economy PlusSM seats with added legroom and increased personal space.  

United Polaris business class is a premium travel experience that prioritises relaxation and comfort, featuring quality inflight dining, premium amenity kits and fully flat-bed seats.   

Located just 14 miles from Manhattan, Newark Liberty International Airport offers the fastest surface transfer journeys to many parts of the city, including the AirTrain service to New York Penn Station in midtown Manhattan, with a journey time of less than 30 minutes. 

United Airlines began serving Scotland in 1998. United will offer its Scottish customers year-round nonstop flights from Edinburgh to New York/Newark from 5 March 2022 as well as seasonal services from Edinburgh to Chicago O’Hare and Washington D.C. from 7 May 2022. All flights are conveniently timed to connect at United’s U.S hubs with an extensive network of services to destinations throughout the Americas.

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Spirit AeroSystems to Upgrade 757 Fleet for SF Airlines in China

Spirit AeroSystems has confirmed it signed an agreement with SF Airlines (SFA) to modify inlet cowlings for its Boeing 757 cargo freighters.

SF Airlines CEO Mr Li Sheng attended the contract signing with Mr Kailash Krishnaswamy, General Manager of Spirit AeroSystems (Hangzhou) Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd. in China, during the Air Show China event in Zhuhai, China. Also from SFA, Mr Tong, General Manager of the SFA Maintenance and Engineering Department, and Ms Wu, Director of the SFA Maintenance and Engineering Department, joined Mr Li for the signing.

“Spirit AeroSystems is honoured to be selected by SF Airlines for this 10-year agreement,” Mr Krishnaswamy said. “Under this agreement, Spirit will provide important repairs for inlet cowlings that will help keep SFA’s Boeing 757 fleet operating effectively now and in the future.”

SFA technicians will remove cowlings from the engines and ship them to Spirit’s site in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the repairs will take place. Once repairs are complete, the cowlings will be shipped back to SFA.

Mr Krishnaswamy added, “Spirit is positioning itself regionally to support SF Airlines and other operators with increasing passenger travel and freight traffic in the post-COVID era, and we look forward to bringing our world-class repair capabilities to the Asia Pacific region.”

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AerSale announces additional Boeing 757 Passenger-To-Freighter conversions at Its Goodyear base

 AerSale’s Recent Acquisition of 24 Boeing 757-200 Passenger Aircraft Stored at AerSale’s Roswell, NM Facility Will Fuel Demand for More Dedicated Freighter Aircraft

AerSale, Inc., a leading global provider of aviation products and services, announced this week that it has inducted the first of its 24-owned Boeing 757-200 aircraft for passenger-to-freighter (“P2F”) conversion at its heavy-MRO center in Goodyear, AZ. The first aircraft was delivered by Boeing in 1999 to American Airlines. All 24 of these aircraft are powered by Rolls-Royce RB211-535 engines, making this fleet the narrow-body freighter of choice due to its attractive payload, range and cost of ownership characteristics.

Icelandair's financial results continue to be affected by Covid-19

Icelandair's financial results continue to be affected by the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic as demonstrated in the carriers latest results publications.  During the year up to the end of September, its comprehensive income, loss for the period from 1 January to 30 September 2020 amounted to USD 292.9 million, of which USD 224.6 million in one-off COVID-19 related cost. Total comprehensive loss for the period was USD 340.1 million.

The carrier says it has reached a final agreement with Boeing over the grounding of the 737 MAX aircraft, which involves financial compensation, as well as the permanent cancellation of four out of the ten aircraft Icelandair, is yet to take delivery of. The six aircraft still on order are expected to be delivered from the second quarter of 2021 to the first half of 2022. Of course,  that is subject to the aircraft being certified in the next two months.  Icelandair hopes the 737 MAX will be back in commercial service before the end of January 2021. 

 

Total revenue USD 103.6 million decreasing by 81% from last year

Cargo revenues increased by 16%

Financial restructuring successfully completed with USD 166.9 million share offering in September

Equity USD 293.1 million at Q3 2020 end and equity ratio 26%

Total liquidity USD 399.1 million at Q3 2020 end, thereof cash and marketable securities USD 227.1 million

EBIT USD 3.5 million in Q3 2020 compared to USD 81.1 million in Q3 2019

Capitalized tax loss as deferred tax assets and reclassification of jet fuel hedges, which became effective post agreements with counterparties, positively affected net profit which amounted to USD 38.2 million

The operations will continue at minimum levels in the coming weeks

 

American Airlines bidding a fond farewell to five fantastic fleets..........

Farewell Boeing 757-200 from American Airlines fleet                                       Photo American Airlines

The US mega-carrier American Airlines recently announced plans to accelerate the retirement of 99 older, less fuel-efficient aircraft from its fleet a fair bit sooner than it had originally planned. 

Following the record lack of demand, travel bans and restrictions caused by the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, American is rapidly redesigning its flying schedule for the foreseeable future and that basically means a lot less aircraft will be required to be in the air where they rightly belong.  So the massive airline is taking this opportunity to retire a total of five aircraft types all around the same time.

American has officially retired the Embraer E190 and Boeing 767 fleets, which were originally scheduled to retire by the end of 2020. The airline has also accelerated the retirement of its Boeing 757s and Airbus A330-300s. Additionally, American is retiring 19 Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft operated by PSA Airlines.

New Bogota service from New York starts December 21st from Delta

Bogota is one of the leading business destinations

 in Latin America 

 New daily service to connect the largest 

Colombian community living in the U.S. 

Starting this winter, Delta will connect New York City to Bogota, Colombia, one of the leading business and tourism destinations in Latin America. The new service out of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport launches Dec. 21, and the service out of El Dorado International Airport (BOG) starts Dec. 22. The route will fly the route with a Boeing 757-200 with 20 First Class, 29 Delta Comfort+ and 150 Main Cabin seats.

“We are looking forward to providing daily nonstop service to the largest Colombian community living in the U.S.,” said Ricardo Garnica Montoya — Delta’s Sales Manager, Colombia. “The JFK-BOG route is important for Delta’s growth in the region as we continue to strive to connect Latin America and the world better than any other airline.”

Delta to link Boston and Lisbon

The US airline Delta will be starting a new route from Boston to the capital of Portugal, Lisbon from 23rd May next year.

The new trans-Atlantic service will operate on a seasonal basis operating between 23rd May and 3rd September. The flights leave at  2145 from Boston and arrive the next morning in Lisbon at 0915.  On the return, the flight is scheduled for a 1045 departure and arrival 1315.

The Trump supporting airline will use a Boeing 757 aircraft on the route that has 20 seats in Delta Premium Select, 29 seats Delta Comfort+ and 150 seats in the Main Cabin. The onboard experience includes access to Wi-Fi, free personal in-flight seatback entertainment screens and power ports in every seat. 

"Delta is thrilled to offer our customers one more additional European destination next summer," said Charlie Schewe, Director — New England Sales. "Greater Boston has a large Portuguese community and this new service will provide a valuable link for residents on both sides of the Atlantic." 

"Delta has significantly grown Boston's direct access to the world in the past five years, including popular tourism destinations like Dublin and now Lisbon, as well as flights to major international hubs offering onward travel to hundreds more destinations," said Roberto Ioriatti, Vice President — Trans-Atlantic. "This will be an excellent addition to the many options for nonstop international travel available to Delta customers at Logan International Airport."           

US NTSB investigate engine failure on Delta 757-200

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating reports that a Delta Boeing 757-200 had an uncontained engine failure when it departed Atlanta airport on 5th September heading to Orlando.

The Boeing 757-200, registration N668DN was operating flight DL1418 shortly after 2300 and climbed to about 18,000 feet in eight minutes having to return to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. 

The aircraft was powered by Pratt & Whitney PW2037  engines and following the uncontained engine failure, the crew returned the aircraft safely to base.  There were 127 people on the aircraft at the time of the incident, no reported injuries.