Freight Nippon Cargo Airlines grounds cargo fleet

Nippon Cargo Airlines has announced, that it has to temporarily stop all cargo flights due to an inappropriate maintenance record, which concerns the fluent oil supply for aircraft parts. NCA said one of its B747-8F aircraft, JA14KZ, experienced a problem at Narita Airport on April 3, 2018.

To ensure the safety of its operations, NCA decided to ground its fleet of 11 freighter aircraft. Since June 16, 2018 no cargo flights have been performed by the operator. The grounding is expected to last about one week, as the Japanese aviation officials investigate the details.

With the NCA fleet parked, transpacific trade links will experience a noticeable capacity shortage in the coming week, as the carrier has put its focus of operations on the United States.

In a statement, the carrier said: “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and worries we caused our customers. We will do our utmost effort to check safety for resuming operation as quickly as possible.”

NCA has also stopped its codeshare flights with Cargolux and All Nippon Airlines. However, Atlas Air Inc. is likely to continue its ACMI flights for NCA.

Nippon Cargo Airlines is a cargo airline headquartered at Narita International Airport, Japan. Its fleet consists of three Boeing 747-400Fs and eight Boeing 747-8F cargo aircraft. 20 destinations are being served in Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, the Netherlands, China, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and in Japan.

The carrier was established in September 1978 and started operations seven years later being Japan´s first all-cargo airline. NCA was a Joint Venture between All Nippon Airways and Nippon Yusen initially.