Boeing won't be delivering their first 747-8F to Cargolux on Monday, 9/19

[Dave S.]

Per this article on Flightglobal's website, Cargolux is declining to accept delivery of the very first and recently certified 747-8F this coming Monday (9/19/2011).


Quoting from the article, "Cargolux has informed Boeing it will not take delivery of its first 747-8 freighter on Monday as planned, due to a contractual tussle..."
Full article here: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2011/09/16/362184/cargolux-will-not-take-747-8f-delivery-over-contract.html

[phantomphan1974]

Hmmm, strange.

[Rob Silliman]

And the rest of the story has finally leaked out....

The 747-8 is not delivering on the promised fuel savings.  GE is already working on a fix/improvement package to increase the performance/decrease fuel burn, but that package is about 2 years out.

Cargolux (and their new Qatar board members) apparently want a larger $$ compensation for the plane/engine not meeting the planned fuel savings.

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=comm&id=news/avd/2011/09/20/02.xml

[Paul Dumm]

And I can see where this  will go when it get ugly, Boeing will says it's "GE's engines burn too much fuel, GE says it's Boeing's airframe need to be reworked"

[Chris Janes]

Cargolux has known about the fuel burn issue for over a year and the plans to resolve it. Qatar Airways which acquired a 35% interest in Cargolux with in the last few weeks is putting the squeeze on Boeing for delays on their orders of the 787.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2011/09/19/362225/cargolux-747-8f-dispute-linked-to-late-qatar-787-deliveries.html

[Rob Silliman]

Today's post on FlightGlobal says that this is a GE-issue on the -8F, and not related the 787 delays.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/747-8f-row-linked-to-ge-issues-not-qatar-787s-sources-362723/

[Chris Kennedy]

Cargolux finally picked up their first airplane.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/CLX1JS