Aircraft

Chinese carrier Okay Airways will be launching domestic freighter operations in May on behalf of FedEx using three Boeing 737-300 freighters.

Okay chairman Liu Jieyin says the first two 737-300Fs underwent passenger-to-freighter conversions at Shandong TAECO Aircraft Engineering (STAECO) in Jinan, China using conversion kits from US maintenance and conversion firm Pemco.

The third was converted by Pemco in the USA and is leased from International Lease Finance (ILFC), he says.

All three freighters are now at Okay’s base in Tianjin, a port city near Beijing, and in the coming weeks these will be transferred to Hangzhou, he says.

Each will be based there and used to provide FedEx express delivery services to cities in China.

FedEx says in a statement that the service starts on 28 May and Okay’s freighters “will operate two circular routes nightly, covering the country’s major airports”.

Liu says: “We plan to get more [freighters] in future but we are still discussing that with FedEx.”

He adds that “we prefer to get more 737Fs because the pallet and maintenance is easy to settle” but Okay is considering other types such as ATR 72 freighters and Xian Aircraft MA60 freighters.

“We are considering ATR and it is one of the solutions we are looking at, [particularly] the ATR 72. This is a very good aircraft.” FedEx in the USA already uses ATR 72 freighters.

But “another solution” is the MA60, says Liu, who claims “this is a very nice aircraft”. In October, at the Zhuhai Airshow in China, Okay signed a memorandum of understanding for 30 MA60s and industry sources said at the time that 20 were designated for passenger operations and the rest for cargo.

Liu says Okay has already received approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to operate freighter aircraft.

Okay has until now been purely a passenger airline. It has three passenger aircraft, two 737-800s and one 737-500, all on lease from ILFC, says Liu.

He says he is speaking to Pegasus Aviation and other lessors about leasing more 737 passenger aircraft but has encountered problems finding aircraft available.

“This year we plan to lease another two” passenger aircraft and next year three more, he says.