ST Aerospace JV wins conversion contract for 10 A321 aircraft
Nisha Ramchandani
Singapore
ELBE Flugzeugwerke (EFW) - a joint venture between ST Aerospace and Airbus - has landed a contract from Europe-based Vallair Solutions Sàrl (Vallair) to convert 10 A321-200 passenger aircraft to 14-pallet freighters.
The first aircraft will be sent to EFW's facility in Dresden, Germany, in the last quarter of 2018 and is scheduled for redelivery by the end of 2019. The companies did not reveal a value for the deal, which is EFW's first passenger-to-freighter (P2F) win for the A321 family.
Gregoire Lebigot, chief executive of aviation company Vallair, said: "We see a huge potential in the A321P2F, not only as a replacement of the B757 freighter, but as a key tool for the cargo industry to achieve the projected growth rate of the air freight market in general - in particular, driven by express services and e-commerce."
The A321P2F conversion programme is the first in its size category to offer containerised loading in both the main deck - up to 14 container positions - and lower deck, with up to 10 container positions. It has a payload-range capability that can carry up to 27.9 tonnes over 2,300 nautical miles, making it an ideal narrow-body freighter for express domestic and regional operations, EFW highlighted.
Lim Serh Ghee, president of ST Aerospace, said: "As the e-commerce and express market continues to grow, our investments in new freighter conversion programmes will allow us to seize the opportunities created by the uptick in freighter demand. While offering a strong proposition with its unique container position in the lower deck, the A321P2F will also complement our other freighter solutions to provide customers with a range of options to select from."
EFW is a 55:45 joint venture between ST Aerospace and plane-maker Airbus.
Other P2F works carried out by ST Aerospace and EFW for Airbus freighters include the A330 which has two variants - the A330-200P2F and the larger A330-300P2F. EFW redelivered the first A330-300 freighter in December last year.
READ MORE:
