“The value of the lease agreements amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars, states. Bluebird Nordic would not have made this investment alone, but with the help of its parent and sister companies, we’ve succeeded in securing wide-body airliners for use in air freight, starting in 2024," said the company’s CEO Sigurour Agustsson.
"Until then, Bluebird Nordic will operate the airliners, once they’re listed on the company’s air operating license, for air freight and so-called VIP passenger flights,” Agustsson added.
Two of the aircraft can currently transport up to 60 tons of freight, but after the modifications in 2024, they will each be able to transport up to 100 tons.
The company will most likely add more wide-body airliners to its fleet, states Gediminas Žiemelis, founder and head of the board of ASG (Avia Solutions Group), the Lithuanian company that took over Bluebird Nordic in early 2020 from its Icelandic owners.
Agustsson also added that with this investment, the company will launch wide-body freighter operations for the first time in the company's history.
Bluebird Nordic currently operates scheduled and chartered cargo services with nine B737s (one B737-300F, seven B737-400F and one B737-800F) to and from Iceland and within Europe out of its base at Keflavík International Airport, with a special focus on Liège Airport and East Midlands Airport as the hub. It plans to dramatically scale up its fleet to include twenty-five B737-800 freighters by the end of 2024.
