Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW), Center of Excellence for Airbus passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversions and joint venture of ST Engineering and Airbus, has just redelivered its 100th converted freighter aircraft. The P2F aircraft, an A330P2F, 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, 4 A320P2F and 51 A330P2F converted by EFW 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 program partners, customers and suppliers as a team,” said Jordi Boto, CEO of EFW. “Over the years, we have steadily built a strong global presence for our Airbus P2F program. 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.”
“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,” said Crawford Hamilton, head of freighter marketing at Airbus.
Over the past 12 months, the global fleet of EFW’s converted freighter aircraft have performed a total flight distance of some 100 million flight kilometers. 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.
The Airbus P2F conversion programs of EFW were developed as a collaboration between ST Engineering and Airbus, with EFW holding the Supplemental Type Certificates and leading in the overall program. The programs 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.
EFW’s Airbus freighter conversions offer several advantages such as OEM supported cockpit commonality and container loading in the upper and lower deck. EFW’s P2F conversion solutions are also equipped with advanced technology that offers airlines additional operational and economic benefits, such as bigger containerized volume for faster loading and unloading, higher gross payload and longer flight range compared to other freighter aircraft in the same class.