Western Global Parks All But One MD-11?
 

What's up with Western Global? As of today, only one of their MD11s is flying (and 2 of their 747s).

Of the other 11 MD11s in their "active" fleet, one is broken in ICN, one is broken in ANC (after eng 3 fail on climb coupla weeks ago), one is in heavy maint in TPE, and the rest -- 8 of them -- have been moved to SHV and RSW. Word from RSW is they're just sitting there.

In a different year, one might say that there's no business. But in THIS market?

Maybe they'll all emerge tomorrow and start new contracts, but to see them head to SHV and RSW one-by-one, leaving just one available for any kind of flying...seems strange.

Just curious.

My 2 cents, either shortage of pilots or 5g issues.

🤷‍♂️

Could it be due to the end of activity in Afghanistan. We had a flow of MAC and commercial jets supplying the activities flying over the UK airspace which now seems to have decreased in number.

That's an interesting point. But it seems like WGN was doing a lot of Asia-US work, for which the demand seems to continue. One carrier said the other day he would buy another 10 converted 747s out of retirement if they were still there, but zero are available. There are numerous companies running maybe 25 large, long-range passenger aircraft (A340, 747-400), stripped of seats on the main deck but with no cargo door, so no containers and hand-loading, and they're busy. Brokers will pay well over $1 million for cargo runs to/from Vietnam right now. FedEx and UPS are running basically every MD11 they own, having pulled the flyable ones from the desert.

So the demand for 12 full-freighter aircraft with the capability of the MD11 is there. This would seem to be a golden period for WGN to exploit. So it just feels odd...

There might be a new need for military charters to Europe all too soon.

Let's hope not!

Chinese new year + Beijing Olympics. Factories closed in China, so low(er) demand for freighters for a few weeks. More than just WGA’s freighters are parked at the moment.

I'm sure you're right about the first sentence. But the second sentence really isn't true about WGN's direct competitors in the US. If you look at Atlas, all of its 9 777s, except a broken one, are flying today, and a survey through Atlas's 3+ dozen freighter 747s doesn't show any noticeable diminution in flying, particularly to/from Asia. They're just blowing and going. Even little Skylease's 2 744-factory-Fs, which rarely have moss under their wheels, are just flying and flying and flying. I'm sure if I look at Kalitta, I'll see something similar. Hence, the question.

But it sounds like maybe Western Global took the opportunity to stand-down the roughly-half of the MD11 fleet that wasn't already broken or in heavy-maint and flew them all back to SHV and RSW for some light TLC. I guess that's one way to do it. Just seemed strange.

As recently as today, WGA is advertising for B747 and MD-11 F/Os. I don't know if that's a sign of a failing company. I don't know enough to defend them; I'm just posting what I stumbled across:


https://recruitingbypaycor.com/caree...ce=SkyJobs.com

https://recruitingbypaycor.com/caree...ce=SkyJobs.com

They can't be doing that bad because they have just announced an order with Boeing for two B777 new builds.