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Several months ago, already, the airline Air Belgium had announced its desire to diversify into cargo.

Today, the company announces that it will soon introduce 4 cargo aircraft with an ambition of 6 units by the end of 2021.

The first two aircraft should be operational as of March 2021. The first aircraft will be based at Liege Airport.

Press release

Cool. Do we know what, yet?

No further information for now. They did a few cargo flights between LGG and JFK recently with one of their A340s, as someone pointed out on another forum we can expect them to take A330Fs as they already have the crew for their A340s...

Amazon are desperate for capacity on SE Asia - Europe routes and are less than enthusiastic about being dependent on existing freight routes. It wouldn't be a massive surprise to see Air Belgium joining the ever-growing band of airlines hauling freight under the Amazon Prime Air brand.

airtrainer wrote:as someone pointed out on another forum we can expect them to take A330Fs as they already have the crew for their A340s...

From where? A330F are probably the most in-demand type there is at the moment. There is currently only one inactive frame and that's the Qatar/Wizz/Hungarian Government oddball that is rumoured to be headed to Sichuan Airlines. The timeframe definitely rules out conversions so, unless there are some cancelled orders sat on the books mid-production, it won't be A330Fs.

They're apparently taking 4 A332Fs from Qatar (A7-AFG,-AFH,-AFI and -AFJ).

MD11 would be nice. And there are some available...

airtrainer wrote:They're apparently taking 4 A332Fs from Qatar (A7-AFG,-AFH,-AFI and -AFJ).

I saw that today. They're QR owned airframes, it must be a good deal for all involved to let them go. Presumably this is a lease deal?

The timeframe looks too tight to allow for a repaint, which is a shame as the Air Belgium livery with the wraparound stripes would look nice on a blank freight bird.

Looks like they will take ex-QR birds indeed. Still no info if it will be a leasing or a sale...

article

First aircraft has been re-registered OO-CMA and is now in DUB, likely for painting (the Qatar logo and title have been removed).

Operating on behalf of, and leased from, French container shipping specialist CMA CGM, who have in turn abandoned plans to buy into the company who own Ceva logistics, French Bee and Air Caraibes.

https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news ... uity-plans

airtrainer wrote:likely for painting (the Qatar logo and title have been removed)

I really hope so, the plain grey scheme looks awful (and will not photograph well). Will have to be a swift turnaround if they are being repainted and still plan to have the first in service by the 21st of Feb.

Plain white with CMA CGM decals, featuring Air Belgium's eye shadow around the cockpit windows. I watched their presser on Wednesday and they are confident that they will keep 4 A332F busy pretty much immediately with an eye on expansion in the near future. If nothing else it will keep a lot of Air Belgium's pilots in work.