Lessor Air Transport Services Group (ATSG) has committed to 29 Airbus A330 Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) conversion slots.
Conversion work will be conducted by Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW), a joint venture between ST Engineering and Airbus, says EFW.
The aircraft will be converted mainly at EFW’s facility in Dresden, Germany, and at a new conversion site in Shanghai, China. Conversion work will run from mid-2023 through 2027, with multiple conversions taking place at the same time.
“The A330-300 passenger-to-freighter conversion is a natural next step for ATSG as it is an excellent complement to the Boeing 767-300 medium widebody freighter, which has long been the freighter of choice for the e-commerce air cargo market,” says Mike Berger, chief commercial officer of ATSG, which specialises in leasing freighters.
“The availability of feedstock combined with impressive cargo capacity make the A330 a very attractive option for conversion and will enable ATSG to continue to meet the demands for full-capacity freighters long into the future. Customers’ response to the news that we will have A330-300 freighters available for lease has been exceptionally strong, and we already have customer deposits towards future leases for half of these 29 converted freighters.”
The A330P2Fs will add to ATSG’s existing fleet of 117 aircraft.
The A330P2F programme is a collaboration between ST Engineering, Airbus and EFW, and builds on the A320P2F and A321P2F programmes.
“To meet the rising demand for freighter conversions, ST Engineering and EFW are setting up new conversion sites in China and the U.S. this year, and are ramping up conversion capacity for all their Airbus P2F programmes to about 60 slots per year by 2024,” says EFW.
EFW offers two variants of the A330P2F, the A330-200P2F and A330-300P2F. The A330-200P2F can carrier a 61t payload over 4,160nm (7,700km).
The -300P2F can carry a 63t payload, and ST Engineering says it officers 23% greater cargo volume than other freighters in the same class.
