Rising fuel prices have increasingly turned the industry’s attention to weight issues. Nordisk – the largest manufacturer of lightweight ULDs – says with the excess of 30,000 lightweight ULDs, using either Kevlar or Twintex composite panels, in service today, airlines who have made the move into lightweight are starting to see the significant fuel costs and benefits. Just under a year ago Teleflex Inc. announced it had purchased Nordisk Aviation Products and would merge its existing Telair brand of ULD into the Nordisk name.
Nordisk highlighted the ability to lighten existing units through retrofitting, lightweight panels also eases airlines need to invest heavily in all new fleets of ULD, a retrofit can cost around 50% of a replacement unit. Nordisk currently offers lightweight LD3 and LD3-46 ( the A320 container) and is rapidly working to introduce lightweight versions of other popular sizes of ULD.