In a bid to cut down fuel cost, Hong Kong's international carrier Cathay Pacific Airways will fly a freighter bare of paints for the first time on Thursday.

The Boeing 747 freighter stripped of most of its paint weighs 200 kg lighter and will save more than 1.5 million HK dollars (193,686 U.S. dollars) on its annual fuel bill for less weight.

Except the airway's identity on tail and nose, the entire body of the freighter is stripped of any paint and named "silver bullet " for the natural metal color of silver.

Though it's the first time that Cathay Pacific flies a "silver bullet", the airway plans to transform all 14 freighters of its fleet to the bare body in a few years so as to cut down fuel cost.

However, the passenger aircraft will remain unchanged.

Last year, Cathay Pacific's fuel expenditure surged 67.20 percent to 15.6 billion HK dollars (2.0 billion U.S. dollars), causing a sharper-than-expected fall of 25.3 percent in annual profits despite record passenger and cargo volumes.

Cathay Pacific consumes almost two percent of all jet fuel used by the world's airlines -- a large amount considering its size --because most of its flights are long haul.

Cutting down fuel cost therefore has become the priority of the airway, which launched a weight task force to save fuel.

Besides the idea of stripping freighters of paint, Cathay Pacific also adopted lighter materials for cargo and baggage containers.

The airline has started to use new containers, known as ULDs, that are made of a material named "Twintex" which is more durable than traditional aluminum.

At 73 kg per container, the ULDs are 24 kg lighter than the old containers.

Source: Xinhua