Saudia (SV, Jeddah International) has disposed of its two B747-8(F)s following their sale to AFG Aviation Ireland, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aircraft Finance Germany GmbH.
In a statement, AFG said it had completed the acquisition of HZ-AI3 (msn 37562) and HZ-AI4 (msn 37563) on behalf of its strategic partner Hongyuan Group. The two freighters will now be placed with AirBridgeCargo (RU, Ulyanovsk Vostochny) in Russia which will operate them for the Chinese firm.
Both jets were delivered direct to the Saudi national carrier from Boeing during the first half of 2013. However, for reasons never fully specified, they were withdrawn from commercial service in December 2019 and have been parked at Jeddah International ever since. As of July 31 of this year, HZ-AI3 had amassed 11,999 flight hours and 1,907 cycles while HZ-AI4 had amassed 12,731 flight hours and 2,071 cycles.
The ch-aviation fleets module shows Saudia's in-house freighter fleet now entails four B777-Fs with a further two B747-400(BDSF)s and one B747-400FSCD wet-leased in from Air Atlanta Icelandic (CC, Reykjavik Keflavik). For its part, AirBridgeCargo already operates thirteen B747-8(F)s, four B747-400ERFs, and one B777-200F.
