newstodate.aero
Nov 12, 2018 (newstodate): The Icelandic cargo airline, Bluebird Nordic keeps its focus on stable and consolidated business - but with a keen eye on market trends.
In 2018, the carrier has seen all its freighter aircraft in the air and reports a sound performance throughout the year.
In the fleet now are five Boeing 747-400 and three Boeing 737-300 converted freighter aircraft.
-What is new in 2018 is that we have purchased the three Boeing 737-300 and one Boeing 737-400 aircraft, turning them into company assets to provide flexibility in our financial base, says Steinn Logi Bjornsson, since 2014 managing director and co-owner of the company.
-As said, all aircraft have been flying on contracts in 2018, but not necessarily on long-term assignments as contracts today are increasingly moving towards contracts with cancellation clauses. Our basically cautious and restrained strategy is thus crucial for Bluebird Nordic.
-This also extends to future fleet planning. We do see a future with Boeing 737 NG aircraft, but as the residual value of the Boeing 737-800 is still rather high due to delivery delays with new aircraft, and also as the freighter conversion programs are mostly running late, the time is still not for us to turn to NG freighters.
-This is further substantiated by responses from the integrators that also find the pricing of the converted NG freighter too high, while FedEx is now adding the first converted Boeing 737-800 freighters to its operations.
-At this moment, we have no immediate plans for adding more capacity to our fleet, but we have the muscle to move if the market would demand this, says Mr Bjornsson.
In 2018, the carrier has seen all its freighter aircraft in the air and reports a sound performance throughout the year.
In the fleet now are five Boeing 747-400 and three Boeing 737-300 converted freighter aircraft.
-What is new in 2018 is that we have purchased the three Boeing 737-300 and one Boeing 737-400 aircraft, turning them into company assets to provide flexibility in our financial base, says Steinn Logi Bjornsson, since 2014 managing director and co-owner of the company.
-As said, all aircraft have been flying on contracts in 2018, but not necessarily on long-term assignments as contracts today are increasingly moving towards contracts with cancellation clauses. Our basically cautious and restrained strategy is thus crucial for Bluebird Nordic.
-This also extends to future fleet planning. We do see a future with Boeing 737 NG aircraft, but as the residual value of the Boeing 737-800 is still rather high due to delivery delays with new aircraft, and also as the freighter conversion programs are mostly running late, the time is still not for us to turn to NG freighters.
-This is further substantiated by responses from the integrators that also find the pricing of the converted NG freighter too high, while FedEx is now adding the first converted Boeing 737-800 freighters to its operations.
-At this moment, we have no immediate plans for adding more capacity to our fleet, but we have the muscle to move if the market would demand this, says Mr Bjornsson.