Had Ordered Eight Of The Airplanes In 2005

The Japanese air freight company that was the launch customer for Boeing's 747-8F freighter has reached an agreement with the planmaker to cancel the remaining two of the aircraft it has on order.

The website Cargo Facts reports that NHK Group had ordered 14 of the jumbo freighters in 2005 for Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA). But by the time they took delivery of the first airplane, the landscape had changed dramatically. Now, the company has capped its fleet at eight aircraft total, and it is already operating four 747-400F airplanes.

That change in the market caused NCA to cancel four of the six airplanes it still had on order in 2015 after taking delivery of eight units. Now, they have decided to pass on the remaining two.

In a statement, NCA said that "given the need to flexibly respond to fluctuation in the global air cargo market, NCA has reviewed its fleet size and scale. As a result of that review, NCA has come to an agreement with Boeing on the cancellation of two 747-8F freighter aircraft. Eight 747-8F freighter aircrafts have been delivered to NCA. Due to the change, the remainder of NCA’s backlog of orders will be zero."

Cargo Facts reports that Boeing's backlog of 747-8F airplanes is now 30 units. But it continues to struggle to sell passenger 747-8 Intercontinental airplanes. Boeing has delivered 41 of the 48 passenger variants that had been ordered, and only seven remain on the books. Of those four were ordered by Russian carrier TransAero, which went bankrupt last year. The remaining three are scheduled to be delivered to Korean Air.

(Image from file)

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