CIS approves AEI conversion imports

THE Commonwealth of Independent States has given Aeronautical Engineers (AEI) its permission to import its 737-300SF and 737-400SF conversions. These are the first conversions. These are the first conversions of a Western company the CIS has approved.
Robert Convey, vice-president of sales and marketing, said that AEI's 737 conversions will provide CIS companies with alternatives to the ageing AN-12 freighter fleet and be used for growth opportunities.
There are currently no Russian-built freighters that can do what the 737 classics do in terms of payload and range so the competition is limited.

Based upon our analysis the CIS countries will surpass Chin in the number of registered 737 classic freighters by 2013. Unlike China, the CIS demand will be driven by the need for replacement of existing freighters rather than the organic growth currently being experienced in China he added.
Regarding what contracts had already been made for the conversions, Convey revealed We are currently in discussions with two customers for a total of 11 737-400 conversions. I will be make an announcement on 25 January regarding the award from the first customer in Russia.
Felix Minevich, president of Omega Worldwide, which helped AEI obtain the IAC approval, said The AEI freighters will open up a huge opportunity for cargo operators is Russia and CIS countries. The demand for these types of freighter aircraft is enormous and we expect to immediately see conversion orders.
Convey said that AEI will initially convert the aircraft at Commercial Jet in Miami, but that they will eventually be converted at Boeing Shanghai, which is a AEI-authorised conversion centre. Each conversion will take 90 days.

Quntas settles US cargo cartel case

QANTAS has agreed to pay a US$26.5 million settlement for an air cargo price-fixing cartel.
The investigation into 19 airlines concerns their freight operations from 2006 and was initiated by Paradiso, a Californian women's clothing retailer. Paradiso, acting on behalf of itself and other importers of goods, claimed the carriers illegally conspired to fix, raise or maintain surcharges levied after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and the first Iraq was in 2003.

As a result of the defendants unlawful conduct and conspiracy, plaintiff and other members of the class paid artificially high surcharges and have been damaged thereby Paradiso said.
In return for agreeing to the settlement and for cooperating by providing documents and information to plaintiff counsel, Qantas was declared exempt from further claims from direct purchasers of its air cargo services to and from the US between 2001 and 2006.
Qantas also revealed the settlements agreed by the other airlines, namely: Air France - KLM $87 million, Lufthansa $85 million, Cargolux Airlines International $35.2 million, Scandinavian Airlines $13.9 million, Japan Airlines $12 million, All Nippon Airways $10.4 million and American Airlines will pay $5 million.
In a statement, Qantas said: Qantas continues to cooperate fully with global antitrust regulators and has resolved its liability(and that of its current employees) in the US, Australia, Canada, Korea and Europe for the improper conduct of its freight division. In each case the fine imposed on Qantas reflected a considerable cooperation discount.
Qantas is now free of such cases in the US but still faces a $200 million class action brought against it in Australia.

Disastrous delays: Guggenheim quits Boeing Deal

Seattle's aviation asset manager Guggenheim Aviation Partners shows Boeing that time really is money after cancelling its order for two new 747-8 jumbo-freighters, which Boeing has seen delayed until mid-2011.
Boeing suffered an earlier cut in the deal with Guggenheim halving its original 2006 order of four freighters, which have current list prices of US$319.3 million each. Guggenheim reduced the order by 50 per cent in December 2009 because of uncertainty surrounding the timing of the deliveries.
In September 2010 the need to redesign components extended Boeing's year-wait to 18 mouths.
There were a few discoveries we encountered in the early stages of flight test, Bob Saling, commercial aviation services and cargo communications at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told AirCargo News. The programme worked through a buffet experienced at a certain flap setting, a low-frequency vibration within a limited portion of the flight envelope, and an under-performing actuator for the inboard aileron.
The new 747-8 freighter delivery schedule announced in September 2010 followed a thorough assessment of the expected cumulative impact of technical disruptions to certification testing, continues Saling. These technical discoveries, which do not require structural changes to the aircraft. led to disruptions to certification testing, which the programme was unable to offset within the prior schedule.
Boeing is now adding fifth test jet to speed up the work, boosting the initial fleet of three. Under the test programme one 747-8 freighter took to the sky for the first time in early February 2010.
The cancellation was a direct result of the delays and the commercial consequences of those delays, Guggenheim's chief executive officer Steve Rimmer remarks. It's very disappointing for us as we wanted to stay with the programme.
The fifth variant of the aircraft includes new General Electric GEnx-2B67 engines and the longest span Boeing has built to date, measuring 224 ft 7 in (68.5 m)
Boeing says the 747-8 freighter will give cargo operators the lowest operating costs and best economics of any freighter. The aircraft is 76.3m long, which is 5.6 m longer than the 747-400 freighter. The stretch, orginally to add passenger space, provides 16 per cent more revenue cargo volume compared with its predecessor, which translates to an additional four main-deck pallets and three lower-hold pallets.
Boeing originally launched the 747-8 on 14 November 2005 with firm orders for 18 747-8 freighters: 10 from Cargolux of Luxembourg and eight from Nippon Cargo Airlines of Japan.
Our freighter orders have been very stable considering the 2008-2009 air cargo industry downturn, Saling remarks. "The uptorn of 2010 has been very helpful in bringing back aeroplanes that were grounded during the recession and airlines now are returning to profitability. We have a solid backlog of about 140 freighter aircraft, which is a considerable amount of lift for the industry to absorb. In addition, we find that airlines tend to go through a period of profitability before they consider placing further orders.
In addition to Guggenheim well-known cargo movers such as AirBridgeCargo Airlines, Atlas Air, Cathay Pacific, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, Emirates SkyCargo and Korean Air have ordered the 747-8 freighter.
Boeing experienced a fiery start to the year with allegations from Wikileaks that US diplomats were acting like market agents in trying to get international governments to purchase Boeing aircraft over European rival Airbus.
More Recently Boeing was outpaced by Airbus, which shot to first place in terms of orders for 2010 totalling 644 with a delivery figure of 510, while Boeing reached 625 and 462 respectfully.