AF to end all-cargo services:
Le Figaro - Sociétés : Air France prépare l'abandon de l'avion-cargo
This means an end to AF's current weekly service through DUB, now operated by a 744F. The route was operated by AF's 772LRFs for a short time, although only two were ever delivered and these are soon to return to the lessor, no doubt joining the other three at Fedex:
JetPhotos.Net Photo » F-GUOC (CN: 32966) Air France Cargo Boeing 777-F28 by John Fitzpatrick
On the subject of cargo, this is an area which the DAA never seems to have much of an interest in and given that exports will - as with the previous recession - lead the economic recovery, it would seem that there should be some investment by the DAA in air cargo facilities. Not a cent of the $1b of DAA's capital spending plan has gone into this. If the DAA has no interest, surely a tender could be put out for other operators to open a facility at DUB. I understand that the DAA has set aside some land for a future cargo facility.
If this could be sold to a new operator, perhaps the proceeds could be used to extend 10/28? With traffic volumes falling, the economic case for a second runway has been undermined (although there will ultimately be a need for this), but a longer runway would be of particular interest to cargo operators.