Martinair (Netherlands) (MP, Amsterdam Schiphol) has wet-leased a B747-400FSCD from Cargolux (CV, Luxembourg) to cover for its own aircraft of the same type that was ferried to Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta for heavy maintenance, according to Luchtvaartnieuws.nl.
LX-TCV (msn 30401) operated for Cargolux until December 31, 2022. It was then ferried from Luxembourg to Amsterdam Schiphol on December 2 and operated its first revenue flight for the Dutch cargo specialist, a subsidiary of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, the next day to Miami International. It will be used on routes to Miami and Bogotá.
The wet-leased quadjet replaces B747-400ERF PH-CKB (msn 33695), which was taken offline after a flight from Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta on December 23 and subsequently ferried to Jakarta for heavy maintenance on December 25. Martinair General Manager Paul van der Wardt told ch-aviation the wet lease would continue through the end of January 2023.
Cargolux is a much larger airline than Martinair with a fleet of six B747-400ERFs, eight B747-400FSCDs, and fourteen B747-8Fs. The ch-aviation fleets module shows that its sister carrier, Cargolux Italia (C8, Milan Malpensa), operates a further four B747-400FSCDs. In turn, Martinair's fleet comprises just one B747-400(BCF) and three -400ERFs. The Dutch carrier operates all four aircraft under the KLM Cargo brand.
