United Parcel Service’s first Boeing 747-400 freighter, which will be flown on long-rangeinternational routes, arrived at the company’s global air hub in Louisville yesterday.
UPS will fly the jumbo plane primarily into the Asia-Pacific region. Regular destinationswill include Hong Kong, Incheon in South Korea, Sydney and Shanghai, where the company is buildingits China air hub.
Later it plans to use the freighter on around-the-world flights with stops in Cologne, Dubai,the United Arab Emirates and Mumbai in India.
“As we continue to see strong international growth, the 747-400 is a perfect fit for UPS,”said Mike Eskew, UPS’s chairman and CEO at the unveiling ceremony.
“It has tremendous range and payload capacity so we can satisfy the need of customers to movepackages and freight to overseas markets. In addition, this is a plane that has a strong record interms of safety, reliability and environmental friendliness.”
UPS will take delivery of three new 747-400s in 2007 and five more in 2008. In addition, thecompany said it would acquire five more of the aircraft from other carriers by 2010, bringing thetotal fleet size to 13.
The 747-400 has a payload of 273,300 pounds with a range of 4,400 nautical miles. It has 30load positions on its main deck and can carry 32 smaller containers on its lower deck. The aircraftis powered by General Electric CF6-80C2B5F engines.
It will be the first freighter in the UPS fleet with a hinged nose. The aircraft’snose-loading capability is ideal for air freight, said the carrier, allowing for extra large orextra long shipments.
