Boeing and AirBridge Cargo discuss compensation for 747-8F delays

AirBridge Cargo Airlines told ATW it “hopes” that Boeing will not announce further delays to its 747-8 Freighter program and that it is in discussion with the manufacturer on compensation for the first set of delays. The Russian cargo carrier placed orders for five firm 747-8Fs in 2007 with purchase rights for a further five.

Deliveries of the new aircraft to ABC were to start at the end of 2009 at the rate of one a year. The first delivery was initially postponed to February 2011 and then to September 2011. Boeing in late September said the first 747-8F will not be delivered to launch customer Cargolux until "mid-year 2011," marking the third delay for the troubled program.

“We do expect Boeing to deliver those aircraft. We hope to receive the first aircraft they promised us for 2009 in September [2011] and a second one in December,” Director Network & Fleet Development Andrey Shumilin told ATW on the sidelines of the EU-Russia Air Transport New Horizons conference in Brussels this week. “We need the aircraft for our planned expansion. We [are] targeted to launch scheduled cargo flights to the USA next year, initially to Chicago.”

The new US routes will be operated with its current 747-400ERF fleet while the new 747-8Fs will be deployed on mature routes with established volumes and yield.

ABC has been expanding quite extensively, and this year launched several new routes and increased frequencies on existing routes. In April, it added a fifth 747-400F to manage the delay in the delivery of its first 747-8F. Its current fleet comprises 10 747s and it is in discussion to add an eleventh one.

(Cathy Buyck - ATWOnline News)