Boeing’s new freighter flagship B747-8F landed last Wednesday for the first time ever at Frankfurt’s Rhein-Main airport in Germany. The G-GSSD registered aircraft is the first cargo plane since 2000 to be branded with British Airways’ livery.
It is operated on a five-year leasing contract by Global Supply Chain, an Atlas Air (51 percent) and BA (49 percent) joint venture.
The craft’s stay in FRA was rather short; it departed at 7:05 pm heading to Chicago with a freight load of 120 tons on board.
The aircraft can carry up to 134 tons over a distance of 8,130 km (4,390 nautical miles) without refueling. It is capable of transporting a further seven pallets in comparison to the B-400F and offers different temperature zones for adequate carriage of sensitive products like pharmaceuticals, healthcare, flowers, meat or vegetables, to name only a few.
In total, IAG Cargo, the combined freight division of British Airways and Spanish Iberia will operate three B747-8Fs.
They are set to replace the aging B747-400Fs, which will be returned to lessor Atlas Air after the expected arrival of the two remaining B747-8Fs in the coming weeks.
The new cargo jumbos will be deployed on existing routes to six destinations, namely London Stansted, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Frankfurt, Chicago, and Delhi.
In addition, new routes to Nairobi, Johannesburg, and Chennai will be included in the network of the B747-8F. Chris Nielen, Area Commercial Manager, Central and Eastern Europe of IAG Cargo, welcomed the craft in Frankfurt, saying: “The investment in this new aircraft clearly signals our freighter commitment to the European air cargo industry. "This will provide our customers with much sought after additional capacity on our existing freighter routes and the ability to diversify the products we carry, including Constant Climate, our temperature controlled proposition.”
Last year the operations of British Airways World Cargo and Iberia Cargo had a joint turnover of €1,096 million and operated 5,886 million cargo ton kilometers. They have a combined workforce of more than 2,700 staff covering a global network of over 200 airports.
Source: Heiner Siegmund
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