BBN Airlines will soon become the newest widebody-freighter operator in Turkey when it starts flying the first Mammoth Freighters 777-300ERMF conversion.
“We started with two. We were a little bit hesitant about the third one, to be perfectly honest,” Fleet Director Douglas Anderson says in this week’s episode of “Cargo Facts Connect,” recorded at Cargo Facts EMEA 2025 in Istanbul this week.
“The third one came, and now we’re talking about perhaps a fourth, because all the business we have with Turkish Airlines is enough for three aircraft, potentially four, and then we do our own ad hoc operations as well, and that’s gradually growing,” Anderson says.
BBN is set to expand even further and enter the widebody segment. The carrier
will lease the prototype 777-300ERMF (35299, ex-Nordwind Airlines) from AviaAM Leasing after completion and certification.
“We see that we can’t have one aircraft — it just doesn’t make sense,” Anderson says. “So, we’re probably looking at three, perhaps four. Again, initially, it’ll be with Turkish Airlines, because that’s the easiest way when you’ve only one aircraft, to potentially setting up our own little operation between the Far East and the U.S., pending tariffs, bringing it into Istanbul and then spreading it out using the network.”
However, a lack of Turkish pilots is constraining growth, he says.
Tune in to this week’s “Cargo Facts Connect” to hear more on BBN as Anderson speaks with Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee at Cargo Facts EMEA 2025 in Istanbul.
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