Magma Aviation, an air cargo charter provider that relies on airline contractors to operate its five Boeing 747-400 jumbo jets, is adding two narrowbody freighter aircraft to the fleet to serve customers in the Middle East and Africa.
On Tuesday, the cargo management company, headquartered in Gatwick, England, announced the appointment of Peter Kerins as CEO. He replaced Conor Brannigan, who stepped down July 31 to join New York-based cargo airline Atlas Air as vice president of strategy.
Magma Aviation said in late July it had acquired two converted freighters – an Airbus A321 and a Boeing 737-800 – and based them in Dubai.
Magma Aviation is part of the sprawling aviation conglomerate Avia Solutions Group based in Dublin and with roots in Lithuania. It is part of Chapman Freeborn, a large air charter broker Avia acquired in 2019.
The two standard-size cargo jets were transferred from sister companies SmartLynx Airlines in Latvia and Air Explore, a Slovak contract carrier and charter operator that Avia Solutions bought in June 2023, said Audrone Keinyte, director of Magma Aviation DMCC, in an email exchange. SmartLynx and Air Explore are operating the freighters for Magma.
Magma Aviation DMCC is the name of the new aircraft marketing company established in Dubai. Keinyte previously was CEO of Iceland-based Bluebird Nordic, another Avia Solutions company that closed its doors in April after business slowed during a lengthy freight recession that hurt all carriers to varying degrees before easing late last year.
Keinyte said Magma’s geographic expansion was made to meet growing demand from freight forwarders and charter brokers for air transport in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Indian subcontinent. The aircraft are already operating on an ad hoc basis.
Few companies operate both the A321 and 737-800 passenger-to-freighter aircraft. Airlines tend to prefer one type or the other for operational and fleet efficiency reasons.
Kerins started his career more than 30 years ago in freight forwarding sales and most recently headed global accounts and products for Etihad Cargo for a year. He spent 11 years as vice president for Middle East and Asia Pacific at Heavyweight Air Express Group (HAE), a general sales and ground handling cargo agent for airlines, based in Dubai. Before that, he headed the Americas region for HAE and was a commercial manager at DHL Aviation.
“Magma Aviation has strong ambitions for the coming months and years, and I am confident that Peter is the right person to take the business to even loftier heights,” said Chapman Freeborn CEO Eric Erbacher in a news release.
In May, Magma added its first regularly scheduled flights to China. The flights take place three to four times per week on a Boeing 747-400 from Liege Airport in Belgium to Nanchang Changbei International Airport.
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