Will SQ Cargo order the A350F?

[wlgspotter]

Believed you are unaware as whenever if you have been to the cargo terminal, you would see the 747s with front loading nose door are always used and not seldom used as you mentioned. SIA Cargo have been using the 747 freighters all along these many many years. And air cargo is still a making profit business even way before covid as can be seen that there are many air cargo airlines alone and many of them fly the 747s for example Cargolux, AirBridgeCargo, and even Cathay Pacific and Qatar and Emirates have a sizeable cargo fleet. And you see passenger airlines have always been in the news for making losses even before covid but hardly heard of a cargo airline making losses.

I believe that there is a difference between the amount of odd-sized cargo that SQ actually carries, vs the frequency and the actual need for of the “use” of the front loading mechanism of the B747F. Think about it this way - currently SQ has only B747F full cargo aircraft, which comes with the front cargo door. In that case, they might as well make use of it since it is part of the B747F’s features, provided the airport can handle front loading of the B747F. However, how much cargo that actually “requires” it to be loaded via the front is a different thing. For all that matters, the majority of cargo that SQ carries could be loaded/unloaded via the side cargo door. Also, there could be other airports which SQ’s Cargo flies to that doesn’t have the capability of loading/unloading via the front, i.e. AKL is actually one of them I believe, as SQ’s dedicated B747F that flies to AKL tend to get processed via the side cargo door. That was perhaps the sentiment that future cargo planes without the front loading capability could work for SQ - they would definitely know better and would have done their own calculations before making such a decision.