Taiwan’s China Airlines takes first 777 freighter

China Airlines (CI, Taipei Taoyuan) took delivery of its first B777-200F on November 30, 2020, expanding its fleet of dedicated freighters to 19 aircraft. B-18771 (msn 66890) was ferried directly from Everett to Taipei Taoyuan, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows. It has yet to enter into revenue service. The aircraft is the first of six B777-200Fs that China Airlines has on firm order directly from Boeing. Fuelling speculation about the Taiwanese carrier’s upcoming rebranding, the new dedicated freighter has not been painted into China Airlines’ standard livery. Instead of the large name of the airline in the front half of the fuselage, it only features minor branding on the tail section. The front part, where the name would normally go, has been left blank. China Airlines’ existing dedicated freighter fleet comprises eighteen B747-400(FSCD)s, according to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module. As such, the carrier is among the world’s leaders in terms of the number of dedicated freighters operated by predominantly passenger airlines, beaten only by Qatar Airways and Korean Air. The airline’s fleet of B777s has so far included ten B777-300(ER)s.