Europe Airpost (Paris CDG) and sister carrier Air Contractors (Dublin International) will replace their outgoing B737-300(F) fleet with B737-400(F)s Hugh Flynn, the CEO of parent ASL Aviation Group, has disclosed. In an interview with CargoFacts, Flynn said ASL would acquire an additional six B737-400(F)s some of which may come via conversion of South African subsidiary Safair's existing B737-400 fleet.
“Air Contractors will be taking aircraft, as will Europe Airpost, and Farnair needs another B737-400(F) in Europe,” he said. “The market is flat in Europe, but we have a number of B737-300(F)s, possibly four, coming out of operations, so we are going to backfill them with -400s. TNT and DHL have both got -300s coming out.”
Additional plans involve Europe Airpost converting its fleet of six B737-300(QC)s into dedicated freighters with B737-700s set to bolster its growing passenger service fleet, Flynn added.
Concerning ASL's newly acquired Farnair Group operation, the CEO said the addition of Quikjet Airlines (QO, Bengaluru International) in India and K-Mile Asia (8K, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) in Thailand would offer ASL a springboard into markets that would otherwise have taken "two or three years" to break into.
Quikjet is expected to operate a fleet of B737s and ATR freighters once it is able to secure an integrator contract over the next twelve to eighteen months. For its part K-Mile, which currently operates one B737-400(F) on behalf of DHL, is looking to add another two B737s and an ATR 72-200(F)/-500(F)/-600F over the course of the next year.
