By Lisa Gordon | May 2, 2016 Estimated reading time 2 minutes, 53 seconds.
KF Aerospace has signed a new cargo contract, necessitating the rehire of DC-10 crews that had been laid off when the Toronto operation shut down in March. Andy Cline Photo
KF Aerospace has signed an agreement with the U.S. division of Solar Cargo Inc. that puts two of its McDonnell Douglas DC-10 freighters back to work in Miami, Fla.
According to Bryan Akerstream, the director of business development at KF Aerospace, the one-year contract has both aircraft operating return flights two to three times per week to Lima, Peru; Bogota, Colombia; and Caracas, Venezuela, from a base at Miami International Airport.
Solar Cargo has chartered the crewed aircraft, which remain under the operational control of KF Aerospace, and may send the DC-10s to other destinations as required.
When Skies spoke to Akerstream on April 20, he said the freighters were busy transporting South American flowers for the coming Mother’s Day rush, as well as fresh in-season produce such as asparagus.
The contract is welcome news for KF Aerospace, which pulled the same DC-10s out of Toronto Pearson International airport on March 18, relocating them to the company’s base in Hamilton, Ont.
The Toronto cargo operation, launched on May 27, 2015, was deemed economically unviable less than one year later. It had been heavily promoted in the hopes of putting KF Aerospace’s jet freighters back to work after the significant loss of long-time Canada Post and Purolator contracts to Mississauga-based Cargojet.
KF Aerospace closed the doors in Toronto and laid off staff while it planned to mothball the operation’s two DC-10s in nearby Hamilton. At the time, Akerstream told Skies that the company would continue to look at “potential options including sale or lease” for the two freighters.
Less than two weeks later, the deal with Solar Cargo was struck. KF Aerospace rehired seven DC-10 crews and the first flight took off from Miami on April 15.
Akerstream said the terms of the contract are subject to change, depending on whether the current South American cargo routes remain sustainable.
—With files from Andy Cline
