Catching Up (Old News): Orders!

In old news, 747-8 lovers have had something to be excited about, in that there were some firm orders and speculative orders in the news recently.

First, Silk Way has ordered three more 747-8Fs. These are firm orders. The main area of interest here is if they'll be taking any of the currently three 747-8Fs stored at Marana, or will they be new builds? Or a mix? This probably depends on if Asiana is still talking to Boeing or if that deal really is dead. Either way, that's three firm orders for 2015, only twelve to go. Plus the sixteen they need from last year...

Second, Cargolux's CEO says they will order more 747-8Fs, as many as twenty more. He says there's no replacement for the 747-8F.

And Turkish Airlines is still mentioning the 747. But I'm not holding my breath.

Silk Way (almost) Orders Three 747-8Fs

As rumored before, Silk Way and Boeing announced that they are almost ready to firm up an order for three 747-8Fs. This puts us in the black for orders the second week of the year!

This is great news of course. One interesting thing that remains to be seen is if these are new builds or if Silk Way takes some existing white tails. There just happens to be three white tail 747-8Fs already in storage.

Deliveries Deliveries Deliveries

Three deliveries in the month of August! Silk Way Airlines took two, finally. Line 1493 (RC641) VQ-BVB and line 1496 (RC642) VQ-BVC flew off to Azerbaijan and into service, one last week and one tonight.

Cawby pic of VQ-BVC leaving KPAE

Lufthansa took one today as well. Line 1503 (RC036) D-ABYQ flew into service as their 15th 747-8I.

That's ten deliveries for the year. There's still a lot of mystery and intrigue with where and when some of these newer frames are going. Stay tuned to the chart...

Korean Airlines First 747-8I Rollout

Today, the first 747-8I for Korean Airlines rolled out.

Cawby pic

Line 1506 (RC051) is scheduled to deliver next year, so prepare to see this frame sit for a long while. Nothing new. This frame begins a string of 747-8I rollouts. 13 of the next 14 frames to come out of the factory will be 747-8Is.

Silk Way seems to be inching their way closer and closer to a delivery. Both of their frames have flown the past two days, and they apparently have financing sorted.

Delivery Dearth (but...)

Well so far it's June, almost halfway through the year, and we have 5 deliveries of 747-8s, which makes even 1.5 frames manufactured a month seem high. This time last year we had about 11 deliveries. It seems nobody but Lufthansa wants their jumbos. NCA's two seem destined to join their sister in the desert, SilkWay's and Cargolux's have languished for months, and nobody seems sure who lines 1501 and 1502 are even meant for.

But today Silkway's line 1493 (RC641) 4K-SW881 went for a C1 flight. Does this mean she'll deliver soon? Or is it a fake out and will she go into storage. Stay tuned... In the meanwhile, Lufthansa should take delivery of line 1500 (RC035) D-ABYP this month. I'm hoping they make an event out of it.

You know who

And here are some great pictures of the 747 FAL just recently taken.

Missing 747-8s

Looking at Matt Cawby's latest flight line, there are two missing 747-8s at Paine Field. Silk Way line 1496 (RC642) 4K-SW882, and NCA line 1489 (RC528) JA18KZ. Line 1489 could either be in the paint hanger or stall 115 getting engines.

In March, we saw two deliveries. Lufthansa took line 1497 (RC033) D-ABYN, and Korean Air Cargo took line 1481 (RC548) HL7623. Line 1481 was a bit of an overdue delivery herself, having rolled out in May of 2013, only to sit around for six months.

Other than that, 747 activity at KPAE has been pretty slow. I suppose at 1.5 frames a month, it will most likely stay slow. The only really exciting thing right now is how eagerly Lufthansa is snapping up their frames. Talk over on airliners.net says the 747-8 is doing very well for them, performing better than advertised while making large improvements to the profitability of their routes.

The first 747-8I for Air China (line 1499!) should roll out really soon.

Activity Update and 100K Views

Lufthansa took delivery of their 11th 747-8I on Friday, line 1494 (RC032) D-ABYM.

Thanks to Royal Scott King

One first flight for Silk Way Airlines second leased frame, line 1496 (RC642) 4K-SW882 went up unpainted and looks like she's being prepared for long term storage at Pinal Airpark.

Lufthansa line 1497 (RC033) D-ABYN rolled out to the flight line.

Lastly, you might have noticed the page view counter hitting 100,000 recently. I think that's pretty cool. If you haven't noticed, there's some great discussion, speculation, and updates going on in the comments section, and I appreciate every last one, as they help keep the chart and this blog apprised of all the latest rumors and news regarding the 747-8.

KPAE Backed Up With 747-8s, D-ABYL Delivers

Line 1492 (RC031) D-ABYL, #10 for Lufthansa delivered on Thursday. Lufthansa should take #11 in the next couple of weeks. Here's D-ABYL arriving in Frankfurt, Germany:

Deliveries need to pick up indeed, because a rather substantial backlog has built up over the past six months or so at Paine Field. It seems a lot of cargo operators are in no hurry to take their frames. There are twelve frames sitting at KPAE currently, and only two are older frames. Cargolux has two ready to start test flying. NCA has three frames in waiting (one has flown, one needs engines, one needs engines and paint). Their last delivered, line 1479 (RC525) JA15KZ, hasn't flown since her delivery flight almost a month ago according to FlightRadar and FlightAware. They must be having some logistic or scheduling problems, because it shouldn't take a month to get a freighter into service. It'll be interesting to see how quickly Silk Way takes up the two frames currently on the flight line earmarked for them. One bit of good news is that line 1481 (RC548) HL7623 for Korean Air Cargo finally has engines and paint.

Hopefully, along with the slower production rate, this 747-8 backlog can clear out over the next two to three months.

1500th 747 Begins Final Assembly

With the scheduled rollout of line 1496 (RC642) 4K-SW882 (tail number not confirmed) for Silk Way Airlines tonight, line 1500 (RC035) D-ABYP for Lufthansa should being final assembly imminently.

Of course this is just a stepping stone to line 3000.

Line 1496. Photo by Matt Cawby. I want that banner.

2013 Orders Update

Update: Fresh out of the paint hanger, line 1493 (RC641) GECAS's first frame is headed for Azerbaijan based Silk Way Airlines as 4K-SW881. This means GECAS's second probably is too. Silk Way was supposed to be in the market for four 747-8Fs, so this does make sense, as they have two more later frames already likely allocated.

Photo by Matt Cawby

-----------------------------------

It seems more and more likely that the two unidentified 747-8I orders are the last two frames for Air China (frames six and seven), so I don't think they'll end up being a big surprise when revealed.

As an addendum to the 2013 wrap up post, final orders for 2013 stand at 17 gross, 12 net (taking into account the five 747-8Fs cancelled by Dubai Aerospace Enterprise in August). Hopefully most cancellations have been shaken from the tree now, so going forward gross orders will equal net orders.

And this post is really just an excuse to post a sequence of 787 line 25 returning from her extremely belated first flight this morning. I remember this frame sitting for an eternity, taped up on the tower apron, but look at her now.

Silk Way Airlines Firms Up Order

Silk Way Airlines, based in Azerbaijan, firmed up their order for two 747-8Fs. These will compliment their eclectic fleet which includes three 747-400Fs, two 767-300Fs, three Antonov An-12s, and seven Ilyushin II-76MFs.

So far for the year this makes five firm orders for the 747-8 in total (the other three were from Cathay). Net orders for the year are at a big fat zero though, due to Dubai Aerospace cancelling five a few months ago.