Astral Aviation (8V, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) phased out the first of its three B727-200(F)s and plans to retire the other two in 2023, Cargo Facts has reported.
5Y-MWM (msn 21247) was retired by the Kenyan cargo specialist at the end of October 2022 and sold to Eagle Enterprise, a South Sudanese logistics and construction company. It was ferried to Juba on October 29. The new owner does not have its own Air Operator's Certificate. It used to charter two An-74s from Mars Avia (Yerevan) only for the Armenian carrier to have its AOC revoked in 2020 over safety compliance concerns. Eagle Enterprise also says it charters an An-26 and an Let 410UVP-E20, but it is not clear whether the information is current and if so, on what AOCs the aircraft are placed.
The company did not respond to ch-aviation's query about the future operator and registration of the B727-200(F).
Meanwhile, Astral Aviation disclosed that it is planning to briefly reactivate another B727-200(F), N86245 (msn 21459), which is currently in storage at Kingman. The trijet will be shortly ferried to Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta for maintenance. However, going forward, both N86245 and the only active B727 in Astral's fleet, 5Y-NIV (msn 22462), will be retired in 2023 and replaced with the newly leased B757-200(PCF)s.
Besides the B727s, the airline currently operates an in-house fleet of two B757-200(PCF)s, one B767-200(SF), and one DC-9-30(CF). In addition to one more B757, it has plans to add up to four B777-300(ER)(SF)s, two A321-200(P2F), four A330-300(P2F)s. and two E190(F)s.
