AIrDriver1

The company had previously announced with the Amazon draw down we’d be receiving 4 747 aircraft as well as 4 777 aircraft in 2024. News broke weeks ago about Atlas securing 90 million in financing to purchase 3 747 aircraft that were linked to AirBridge Cargo (Russia). Are these 3 aircraft #’s 1,2 and 3 out of the 4 announced or have those been delivered and these 3 are number 5,6,7?

Atlasvet

My understanding is that they are 5,6,7 as they are 747-8s. The first 4 747s were 747-400s.

AIrDriver1

Interesting. Was there no company communication on this? If so I missed the ball. Things have been quiet. Rumor is there’s more 747 that AirBridge might be moving. Additionally with the ANA takeover of NCA I wonder if we land their 74’s as well, due to operating 74s on their behalf now. I’m unaware of the airframe retirements coming up, but really looks like there could be some exponential growth on the 74 fleet

Clue32

Correct. 1 and 2 were ex China Airlines, 3 and 4 were SilkWay. All -400s. Air Cargo News, Freight Waves, or Flight Global have old articles about those orders. The lawyers have been busy reserving N Numbers.

Clarifying aircraft orders is a great question for the next town hall or Union Crew Call once the election is over. It is getting confusing.

SealingStemBolt

Don't believe anything until you see it on the ramp. However, it seems like Atlas wouldn't have cancelled the Amazon contract early and caused all this training mayhem without a really, really good reason.

wingedmunkie

The part that's unclear to me with all this is that the press release about the aircraft financing specifically referenced 3 747-400Fs. The AirBridge aircraft are -8s.

So there are a couple of possibilities:

1) The press release was mistaken and the financing was for the -8s.
2) The financing was for 3 of the 4 previously purchased airplanes
3) There are 3 additional -400s for a total of 10 new to us 747s.

The nerds enthusiasts over at airliners.net have identified 3 additional parked -400s at China Airlines from the same group that the first two came from. If they're right (and that's a huge IF given that we're talking about hobbyist speculation and not industry insiders) and there are really 10 new 747s coming, the required staffing uses a good chunk of the pilots made redundant with the loss of the Amazon 767s. It would be nice if the company would say something official.

Atlasvet

The company rarely (if ever) announces staffing requirements. Rather, they press on acquiring airframes when they are confident they can place them. What they like to do is announce new customers or expansion with existing customers. Only then do the manning requirements become known.

wingedmunkie

Agreed. However it's easy enough to do the math on staffing per airplane and per seat. It doesn't give you the company's target numbers but it gives a rough idea of how we have been using the pilots historically. My statement about hearing from the company was solely about aircraft numbers.

SealingStemBolt

The only time I ever heard of Atlas announcing an aircraft order ahead of customers was when they aquired the 4 new 777s from Boeing. My guess is that was Boeing driven as they essentially auctioned off some additional assembly line positions when the 777X delayed more.

If you think about it, it would not be in Atlas' favor to announce tails before customers are lined up. It might drag down negotiations for contracts if it's known they have a new (expensive) jet they need to place. Not that I know beans about ACMI business negotiations but it always seems that Atlas buys jets quietly and only announces new customers. The rare deviation is for factory new airplanes where Boeing, Atlas and the customer want to make a splash.

Elevation

​​​​​​This is a good observation, I think.