EFW redelivers 100th converted freighter aircraft

Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW) has reached a major freighter conversion milestone with the redelivery of its 100th converted aircraft.

The Airbus A330 passenger to freighter (P2F) aircraft was redelivered from EFW’s facility in China.

Since the redelivery of its first P2F aircraft for its widebody A330P2F programme in 2017, the number of annual conversions carried out by EFW has grown steadily.

To date, 47 A321P2F, four A320P2F and 49 A330P2F converted by EFW, a joint venture of ST Engineering and Airbus, have joined the global fleet of Airbus freighter aircraft.

“The redelivery of our 100th Airbus P2F aircraft is a great milestone that is made possible by working closely together with our programme partners, customers and suppliers as a team,” said Jordi Boto, EFW chief executive.

“Over the years, we have steadily built a strong global presence for our Airbus P2F programmes. Today, we have converted aircraft that are registered in all continents, while our P2F aircraft are flying in key regions across the world. We look forward to our next redelivery milestone and to providing even greater value to operators with our new-generation P2F aircraft solutions.”

EFW’s P2F programmes were developed as a collaboration between  ST Engineering and Airbus, with EFW holding the Supplemental Type Certificates and leading in the overall programme.

The programmes include the widebody platforms – the A330-200P2F and the A330-300P2F – which were first redelivered in 2017 and 2018 respectively; and the narrowbody platforms – the A321P2F and the A320P2F which were first redelivered in 2020 and 2022 respectively.

Over the past 12 months, the global fleet of EFW’s converted freighter aircraft have carried out a total flight distance of some 100m flight km. Over 60% of the flights by the widebody A330P2F aircraft were carried out in Asia Pacific and Europe and by connecting those main regions, while over 75% of the flights by the narrowbody A321 and A320P2F aircraft were in Asia Pacific and Europe.

Crawford Hamilton, head of freighter marketing at Airbus, said: “Seeing the growing number of Airbus P2F converted aircraft serving cargo markets around the world on short- and medium-haul routes makes us proud. Each converted freighter aircraft is based upon a proven Airbus platform, providing operators and investors a very appealing option of repurposing passenger aircraft for freight carriage.”

MRO Japan (MJP) and EFW formally signed a partnership this month that will see MJP provide third-party conversion services for EFW’s Airbus A320 passenger to freighter (P2F)/A321P2F programmes.

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