UPS has ordered 14 new Boeing 747-8 cargo jets to meet increased demand for the company’s air shipping services. Long term strategy is to increase customers’ access to global markets. Therefore air shipments are a major growth opportunity for the company.
“UPS is making several strategic capital investments for increased global operating capacity,” says David Abney, UPS Chairman and CEO. “These investments will help enable customers to expand their presence in new and existing markets while fueling our profitable growth and attainment of UPS’s long term business objectives.”
The 14 aircraft are to be delivered between 2017 and 2020. The value of the contract, which also contains options for 14 additional jets in the future, was not disclosed. The new jumbo freighters will be added to the company’s existing operating fleet of more than 500 aircraft.
The 747-8 freighters carry 34 shipping containers on its main deck and 14 in its lower compartments. Each of them has a cargo capacity of 307,600 pounds, or approximately 30,000 packages and a range of 4,340 nautical miles.
