Airbus and EFW have signed an agreement with ST Aerospace to jointly launch a A320/321 passenger-to-freighter conversion programme.
Under the pact, Singapore-based MRO provider ST Aero will be the programme and technical lead in the development phase, while Airbus will provide OEM data and certification support. EFW will be responsible for driving sales and marketing activities.
The conversions will be done in EFW and ST Aero facilities in Asia, Europe and the USA, and the first converted A320/321 will be available to customers in 2018.
This follows a similar collaboration for the A330P2F conversion programme launched in 2013.
Airbus
Airbus is forecasting a demand for more than 600 narrowbodies to be converted to freighters over the next 20 years.
"This is the only Airbus-supported A320-family freighter conversion programme, and as such will take full benefit of our inherent design knowledge of the aircraft, our engineering know-how [and] the extensive operational experience from the thousands of Airbus single-aisle aircraft in service today," says Airbus chief operating officer Tom Williams.
The A320P2F will have the capacity to carry 21 metric tonnes of payload over 2,100nm (3,890km), while the larger A321 variant will be able to carry up to 27 metric tonnes over 1,900nm (3,520km).
Airbus in 2011 cancelled its A320 P2F programme just before the Paris air show, citing strong growth in passenger traffic driving demand for used A320-family jets, reducing the number of aircraft available for conversions. Its partners then were EFW and Russian aerospace firms United Aircraft and Irkut.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
