Canadian freight airline Cargojet intends to acquire five Boeing 767 Freighters and two 777Fs in the coming years – enabling it to meet increasing demand for air cargo.

The Mississauga, Ontario-based freight airline expects it will receive the 767Fs in 2021 and 2022, followed by the two 777Fs in 2023.

cargojet

A Cargojet Boeing 767 Freighter

The company declines to say whether the incoming jets will be factory-built freighters – either new or used – or passenger jets converted to cargo aircraft.

Acquiring 777Fs would bring a third Boeing aircraft type into Cargojet’s fleet.

At the end of September, the airline operated 24 Boeing freighters, including three 767-200Fs, 13 767-300Fs and eight 757Fs, according to Cargojet’s most-recent fleet plan. The 767s include former passenger jets converted by both Boeing and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

Converted 777-300ERs are available through a joint IAI-GE Capital Aviation Services project launched in 2019. Those companies call their variant the 777-300ERSF, and expect to deliver the first in 2023 to Kalitta Air.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly increased demand for Cargojet’s international air cargo services,” the Canadian carrier says. “US and international air cargo growth opportunities have emerged as a result of rapidly evolving global supply chains and a lack of air cargo capacity.”

Cargojet intends to fund the acquisitions with C$350 million ($277 million) raised through an offering of stock, it said on 12 January.

The funds will also help Cargojet pay for a new hangar and “additional land-based facility infrastructure in Canada”, it adds.