CARGO JUSTIN WASTNAGE / DRESDEN & LONDON
Companies await fall in values before pressing ahead with freighter modification programmes for Airbus narrowbody
Plans to launch passenger-to-freighter conversion programmes for the Airbus A320 family have been delayed pending further declines in market values.
With the oldest A320s now 15 years old, the aircraft is moving into the window for conversion to cargo as residual values fall.
Serious interest in an A320 freighter began to emerge last year when several US package carriers expressed interest in the type. However, market values must reach a certain level before the complete cost of a converted freighter (airframe and modification) is competitive for cargo operators.
Dresden-based Airbus conversion specialist EADS-EFW had been planning to have an A320 conversion available from 2004 (Flight International, 3-9 July 2001). It has completed preliminary designs for a 14-pallet, 20t-payload class freighter conversion, which could be offered for around $4 million.
However, EFW sales director Wolfgang Schmid says the narrowbody programme has been put on hold "due to lack of demand...we do not see any urgency in the proposal now, but are prepared for it if competitors launch conversions".
With EFW parent EADS being the majority shareholder in Airbus, the division is effectively the manufacturer's in-house conversion specialist. Sources say Airbus does not want a freighter conversion for the A320 before 2008, to protect the residual value of the passenger variant.
GATX, an A320 leasing specialist which manages a portfolio of around 45 A320 family aircraft, has been evaluating whether to launch a conversion, and will present its findings at the Global Air Cargo conference in Atlanta in June.
Although GATX Air advisory board chairman Glenn Hickerson believes the twinjet "would make a great freighter", the study concludes the continuing high market values of second hand aircraft would prove prohibitive to the cargo market.
"The market value would have to drop to around $10 million and ideally around $6 million to make it attractive," says Hickerson.
Source: Flight International
