In another piece of good news for Boeing’s widebody aircraft, the company announced that UPS had signed an order for 14 747-8 Freighters. The agreement, announced on 27th October, also includes an option to purchase an additional 14 of the cargo aircraft.  The order is valued at $5.3bn at list prices.

“The 747-8 will allow UPS to upsize our network in both new and existing markets,” said Brendan Canavan, president, UPS Airlines. The company said it would deploy the aircraft on international routes.

The order gives a big boost to the 747-8F backlog, which stood at just six aircraft in September, plus nine for the 747-8 passenger variant. The dwindling backlog had prompted Boeing to announce in January that it was reducing the 747 production rate to six aircraft per year, starting in September. Earlier, it said the production rate would drop to one per month in April.

It is not clear why a recent order from Volga-Dnepr Group does not feature in the official Boeing tally. Boeing and Volga-Dnepr confirmed an order for 20 747-8s in July, but the most recent 747-8 order indicated on Boeing’s website dates from October 2014, and the only Volga-Dnepr order (for five aircraft) dates from 2006. The Russian group took delivery of its 10th 747-8 ten days ago, on 17th October.

Boeing has delivered 109 747-8 passenger and freighter aircraft to date.