Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA) will begin to restart services on July 5 after it grounded all its freighters while checks were carried on aircraft records.

The airline said that the investigation into JA18KZ - a Boeing B747-8F - would be completed on July 4 and flights using the aircraft would resume the following day, operating between Narita and Shanghai Pudong.

"The rest of the aircraft operation will resume in sequence as soon as the aircraft safety is confirmed," NCA said in a short statement.

"We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and worries that we caused our customers. We will do our utmost effort to check safety for resuming operation as quickly as possible."

NCA took the step of laying up its freighter fleet of 11 aircraft earlier this month after government inspectors identified an “inappropriate maintenance record”.

Initially, the airline hoped it would have only had to lay up its fleet for a week while it carried out an inspection of aircraft records.

However, on June 22, NCA said that it would be more than another week until the first aircraft could resume operations, with the rest following in sequence.

The airline has kept flying through its ongoing lease deal with Atlas Air, while the US-aircraft owner also carried out some charter flights for NCA.

The Japanese airline also has space agreements in place with Cargolux and ANA.

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