1st FedEx 757 converted freighter gets its colors

She's finally here. The first converted 757 in FedEx colors got photographed on the Memphis ramp on Thursday night. I gotta say it looks good. But, when all you're used to seeing is FedEx widebodies, with an occasional 727, this bird looks way long and skinny.

Photo: M.J. Scanlon via Airliners.net

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Round and round we go: ATA bites the dust now

Aloha, croaks last week; Champion crashes and burns on Tuesday (figuratively, of course); and now this. ATA announced this morning that they have filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and ceased all flight operations effective immediately. Another Third-rate Airline ATA is claiming they are the latest victim in a string of murders by the evil rising prices of jet fuel. The Indianapolis based charter and scheduled airline also states it has lost out on a key military charter contract for 2009. FedEx, the team leader for an arrangement with the DOD and Air Mobility Command, officially booted ATA from the team next year. Apparently this team, of which ATA has been a part of for nearly 20 years, was just about the only thing that kept them flying with a nice little injection of military funding. That, coupled with the ridiculous spike in fuel prices, was enough to nail down the coffin on ATA. I guess this officially ends their code-sharing agreement with Southwest, who by the way has enough problems of their own.

P.S. If you have already purchased a ticket on ATA for the future, it will make a nice origami swan, as your ticket is now worth the equivalent of an origami swan. Your SOL. Sorry, buddy.

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New pics of FedEx 757 freighter conversions

(Pictures courtesy of FedEx)

Bloggin' to you from the road on this one. These are brand new pictures of the first of FedEx's acquired 757s being converted to freighters. You can see the one is a former US Airways bird. The first of these new guys should be in service by June or July flying between Memphis, Indianapolis, and Dulles. By 2012, FedEx intends on having 87 in the fleet. Hopefully they'll be able to retire some of their gas guzzling 727s at that point. I bet these will look sweet in the FedEx colors.