The pandemic generated great changes in the commercial aviation industry, with leisure and corporate travel strongly affected. But air cargo, with its adjusted capacity, achieved great benefits for companies. The growing demand for e-commerce products, pharmacological products and the load that was previously transported via belly cargo and previous contracts caused some companies to «resuscitate» aircraft that was retired in order to fulfill current needs.
As Cargo Facts reported, two UAE-based leasing and charter companies acquired two Boeing 747 freighters that were in storage.
This way, Aquiline International Corporation Ltd added an eighth Boeing 747 to its fleet. The aircraft’s MSN is 25152, a B747-400BCF manufactured in 1991 that is powered by Rolls-Royce RB211 engines. Its first operator was South African Airways as a passenger aircraft, then it was modified to a freighter in 2006 and was operated by Cathay Pacific.
The Hong Kong airline withdrew it in 2018 and it was transported to the United States desert at Marana (MZJ) in late September 2019.
Aquiline’s clients are Saudia Cargo (Saudi Arabia), Silk Way Airlines (Azerbaijan), Vision Air International (Pakistan), TCA (Georgia), TransAviaExport Airlines (Belarus), Rubystar Airways (Belarus) and Air Cargo Global ACG (Slovakia).
On the other hand, Global Service Solutions (GSS) reactivated a 39-year-old Jumbo. In the absence of a more modern model, they made the decision to acquire a B747-200F (MSN 22545) manufactured in 1981 equipped with General Electric (GE) CF6-50 engines. For 23 years he operated for Alitalia, in 2004 it switched to the Russian AirBridgeCargo and in 2017 ended up operating for Air Georgia before being retired.
Both aircraft were destined to be scrap metal and as a source of spare parts for others of the same model, but thanks to the current market peculiarities they will be able to continue flying.
