Cargo airline Avient Aviation, which until now has operated exclusively McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 freighters, is poised to take delivery of its first Boeing MD-11F.
The aircraft, Z-BAV, is being supplied by Sky Holding under a dry-lease agreement and is scheduled to leave Miami today and fly to Avient's European flight operations base at Liege in Belgium.
It will enter service straight away, carrying out a number of contracted charter flights from Asia to Europe and is expected to be introduced on Avient's scheduled services, which are strongly focused on Africa, in December 2009.
A second MD-11F, also to be supplied by Sky Holding, is planned to join the fleet early 2010.
Avient underlines the benefits of the MD-11F over the DC-10-30Fs, stating that the type is less expensive to run and more environmentally-friendly - as well as offering an increase in capacity, payload and range.
Fleet renewal has been high on the airline's agenda for some time and Avient's chief operating officer, Simon Clarke, tells Air Transport Intelligence that the MD-11F emerged as the obvious short- to mid-term choice.
"It will enable us to further develop our scheduled service offering while additionally enhancing our capabilities in the charter market," he says, adding that Avient will more than likely move to an all-MD-11 fleet.
"Depending on the market's recovery, we could be operating three MD-11Fs by 2011 with the DC-10s gradually being phased out - but it's not the end of the road for them just yet. They remain a good aircraft for charter work."
UK-headquartered Avient, whose three DC-10-30Fs are Zimbabwe-registered, had until recently been largely focused on Europe-Africa and Middle East-Africa routes. However, in August this year it launched scheduled service between Hong Kong, Sharjah and Lagos, with onward connections, using the same aircraft, to a number of destinations in West and Central Africa.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
