3393RP
En-Route
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2012
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3393RP
I was browsing FlightAware earlier, and noticed a Cathay Pacific 747-8F that had just left DFW bound for ATL. For no particular reason, I did a search and discovered the airline has fourteen 747-8 freighters in service. The fleet is registered as B-LJA through B-LJN.
Entering a tail number into FlightAware's database pulls up seven days of aircraft activity. I viewed the flight history for eight or ten of the CP freighters, and found some interesting information. These aircraft stay very busy.
Almost all of them showed flights between Hong Kong and Anchorage, with subsequent destinations all over North America, including LAX, ATL, IAH, EWR, and MEX. Others headed west from HKG, to BOM, FRA, and DWC.
There were just one or two instances where an aircraft was on the ground at CP's base in HKG more than 24 hours. I'm guessing one of the reasons is that the -8F is a relatively new airframe, going into service in 2011. Another, of course, is that cargo operations don't make money if the planes aren't flying, so I imagine CP's maintenance base is a finely tuned machine.
The 8F's numbers are impressive. It has 30,200 cubic feet of cargo space, can carry 292,400 lbs of cargo, 400,218 lbs of fuel, and the MTOW is 987,000 lbs.
Another interesting revelation was the flight times between the various destinations flown by the big freighters. Flight time between HKG and ANC is consistently about 10:45, and all of the other legs east or west bound are six hours or less. With a maximum cruise speed of Mach O.85, the aircraft can move a bunch of cargo anywhere in the world in a short amount of time.
I dunno if anyone else will find this interesting. I looked into it on a whim, and enjoyed the results.
Entering a tail number into FlightAware's database pulls up seven days of aircraft activity. I viewed the flight history for eight or ten of the CP freighters, and found some interesting information. These aircraft stay very busy.
Almost all of them showed flights between Hong Kong and Anchorage, with subsequent destinations all over North America, including LAX, ATL, IAH, EWR, and MEX. Others headed west from HKG, to BOM, FRA, and DWC.
There were just one or two instances where an aircraft was on the ground at CP's base in HKG more than 24 hours. I'm guessing one of the reasons is that the -8F is a relatively new airframe, going into service in 2011. Another, of course, is that cargo operations don't make money if the planes aren't flying, so I imagine CP's maintenance base is a finely tuned machine.
The 8F's numbers are impressive. It has 30,200 cubic feet of cargo space, can carry 292,400 lbs of cargo, 400,218 lbs of fuel, and the MTOW is 987,000 lbs.
Another interesting revelation was the flight times between the various destinations flown by the big freighters. Flight time between HKG and ANC is consistently about 10:45, and all of the other legs east or west bound are six hours or less. With a maximum cruise speed of Mach O.85, the aircraft can move a bunch of cargo anywhere in the world in a short amount of time.
I dunno if anyone else will find this interesting. I looked into it on a whim, and enjoyed the results.
