Cargolux (CV, Luxembourg) is planning to add two second-hand B747-400(F)s to its fleet in 2019, CEO Richard Forson has told Air Cargo News. The carrier is also considering taking back an aircraft currently on lease to Emirates SkyCargo and redeploying it on its own network.
"The flexibility I have [when the first aircraft returns from lease and the others are delivered] is that I can either use them to replace aircraft that are going back at the end of their lease, or if the market continues to remain very strong, they can be operated as an addition to our existing fleet, but it will depend on market conditions," Forson said.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, the Luxembourg-based cargo specialist currently operates nine B747-400(F)s, including one wet-leased to Emirates (EK, Dubai International), and fourteen B747-8(F)s. Its subsidiary, Cargolux Italia, operates a further four B747-400(F)s.
In December 2017, Forson said the addition of second-hand aircraft offers the carrier much lower capital investment than potential new orders would and is a cost-effective way to grow the fleet.
Looking to the future, Forson told CargoFacts in an interview that he expects the -400s to be retired by 2030 while the -8(F)s are expected to remain in service through 2040.
Although the B777-F could handle "85% of the loads" Cargolux carries today, Forson said he would prefer to hold off adding a new type to the fleet until the next generation of freighters comes available.
“I think we would probably have an interest in 777X freighter. But from an airline perspective, if I had to do a swap, I would probably wait until I could make a swap into a new-generation freighter, and then we will have a mixed fleet at that point in time,” he said.
