The big news this past month was the announcement from express delivery giant, FedEx that it placed an order for 50 B767 Freighters (and options for another 50) and 18 B777 Freighters. Representing the largest ever order for the aircraft type, it was of course nothing particularly earth shattering by Middle East carrier standards, but that’s a completely different story.
Certainly the order also says something about the way the industry moving – the integrators continue to thrive as most mainstream cargo carriers watch the growth of global cargo market chart straight out nearly as flat as a runway. For FedEx they’ve obviously done their homework and the aircraft remains for them an excellent replacement for their ageing MD-10s (similar payload to the MD-10, but improved reliability, a 30 per cent increase in fuel efficiency and at least a 20 per cent reduction in unit operating costs) and at some point its A300s. With the new deal, the express carrier now holds firm orders for a substantial,106 B767s.
For Boeing this is also obviously quite an interesting and beneficial development, partly because interest in the B767F had been waning of late. The B767 production line has been chugging along for nearly 35 years, virtually unheard of in aircraft manufacturing. It pretty much means these aircraft rolling off the production line are pure cream in Boeing’s coffee having long ago covered all development costs, unlike – dare we mention – the B747-8F and Intercontinental, although those are really only half an example since they were based, at least in part, on the existing B747-400s.
The B767 production line won’t end with the delivery of FedEx’s last freighter either. A US$35 billion US military contract to supply aerial refueling tankers based on the B767 will keep it going until at least 2027, making it a 46 year life span for the production of that particular aircraft type – surely a record unlikely to be broken for quite sometime, if ever.
But what remains an open and curious question is whether Boeing will develop a freighter version of its popular new B787 Dreamliner. Effectively a direct, modern, replacement for the B767 on the passenger side it offers far greater benefits in terms of efficiency than its earlier incarnation. Typically a freighter variant doesn’t happen so soon in an aircraft type’s lifespan and many factors shape the ultimate decision to introduce a new freighter type including conversion potential etc.
Right now there’s not a huge amount of enthusiasm for talking freighters – at least the big freighters – although having said that there’s been a steady trickle with Chinese, Asian and Middle East carriers ordering Boeing’s big freighters. And it should be pointed out that obscured by all the talk of the substantial B767 order, FedEx also ordered 18 B777Fs which is pretty signficant order in its own right.
Smaller regional freighters from Airbus’ A330-200F down seem to be generating some interest, although Airbus’ sole freighter product isn’t really shattering any sales records – at the moment. And coming on stream in the coming years is the A330P2F conversion by ST Aerospace and EADS EFW, obviously catering to a slightly different market than the newbuild version.
The announcement a few months back of a A320P2F conversion programme by EADS EFW is an interesting offering as well and certainly one to watch in the coming years. China’s voracious demand alone, for smaller domestic-sized freighters will certainly drive the demand for smaller newbuild and converted freighters.
Indeed, China’s carriers have apparently woken from their quiet slumber, grabbing headlines with rapid scaling up of maindeck capacity – most of it being large freighters. It will be interesting to watch as things develop, but for sure, as many have pointed out despite the industry malaise, large freighters are clearly not going the way of the dinasaurs.
