No doubt, the name of Cargolux is wide know in the industry of air cargo transport. I don’t know how much of a strain it would be to call them ‘one of the largest and influential player in the field’, but Cargolux can be proud of its reputation, and it also has quite a decent size fleet of 747-400F cargo planes (16-strong), which could be seen at many places around the planet. And here’s one of them, spotted yesterday morning at the Calgary International airport.
I immediately went back to the archived ‘back issues’ on this blog, and retrieved those pics of another Cargolux 747 from a post on an Aeroflot ‘Moscow-Istanbul’ flight of February 27, 2004.
I took that one when it was departing the Istanbul Atatürk airport early afternoon on that day. Guess, isn’t it a convincing proof of ‘perceptible global presence of a company in concern’? 
So, if it matters for a potential spotter, Cargolux flies between Calgary and Luxembourg as a scheduled cargo airline, - it should then appear here in Calgary at least three times a week, as far as I know. It is said to be flying with this frequency since February, 2003, when the company added one more flight going on Fridays, to bring it up to three a week. However, as any kind of schedule may always become a ’subject to change, don’t regard this info as 100 per cent correct. Yesterday was Saturday, by the way. Was anybody seeing the Cargolux around on Friday?
I think we should try and ask Dave who might know the flying schedule for any those ‘conspicuously looking airplanes’.
When we bumped into each other one day at the Calgary airport, from an exchange that followed I surmised Dave had ‘means to know in advance’ when this ‘Singapore Airlines Cargo‘ 747-400F was going to appear in the ‘cow town’.
Click on this link, and see pictures taken by Dave during that ‘cross-spotting session’ .
It may be quite convenient for spotters to know the movements of their ‘interests’ subjects’. Especially, if they move on schedule. However, it would be interesting to look at the ‘business side of this whole business’, I mean, to explore a bit - how it works: ‘scheduled air cargo transport‘.
(to be continued..)
April 14th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Hey Sergey, I believe Cargolux flies into Calgary four nights a week now from both Los Angeles and Seattle.
Three nights a week Asiana flies in from Chicago and then goes direct to Incheon, Korea.
Calgary had brief cargo service from Korean Air in 2004-2005, but that didn’t last too long unfortunately
The one I really want to get a picture of now is Kelowna Flightcraft’s DC-10. It’s been hard to get because it arrives after 20:00 making it dark by then. I believe that comes in every week night to Calgary then goes to Vancouver.
Another one I want to get is Cargojet. They fly in every night with their 767 and then carry on to Vancouver as well.
Then of course we get some odd random cargo flights that aren’t scheduled like Atlas Air that transport military cargo.
Cargo flights are usually some of the more interesting flights we get into YYC and are always nice to see.
April 16th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Dave,
thank you for your input here. Do you know where to look in to pick up some cargo airlines’ schedules, by chance?
I guess, you’ll be able to take decent shots of the Kelowna’s DC-10 soon, - as the day gets longer
Cargojet’s 767 almost always can be seen in Vancouver.
There’s an interesting piece of reading on Kelowna Flightcraft Air Charter, and it is available on-line, - an interview with the company’s no smaller figure than the boss himself, Barry Lapointe.
Good luck on rare birds spotting!
S