LONDON – CDB Aviation has received its first Airbus A330-300 Passenger to Freighter (P2F) variant aircraft from Elbe Flugzeugwerke.
With this aircraft now in CDB’s hands, it can now be off-loaded to Mexican cargo carrier, mas, which is due to take place soon, with the second being delivered in May.
Executive Comments…
Commenting on the delivery was Patrick Hannigan, CDB Aviation’s CEO:
“This is an important and historic day for CDB Aviation as we see the fruit of two years of intense work and collaboration, culminating in the delivery of our very first A330 P2F since we made the strategic entry into freighter aircraft leasing”.
“We are grateful to the mas team for trusting CDB Aviation to be a partner in supporting their innovative fleet strategy and for being our very first A330P2F customer.”
Also commenting on the news was mas’ CEO, Luis Sierra:
“We feel honored that CDB Aviation trusted mas to be its first A330 P2F customer.”
“For us, operating the -300 variant will open amazing opportunities in regional markets where there is a need for highly reliable aircraft, providing enough volume.”
“Working together on this process was amazing, and we are already looking at ways to do more business with the CDB Aviation team.”
Finally, commenting on the conversion was Jordi Boto, Elbe Flugzeugwerke’s CEO:
“We are glad about the in-time, in-quality re-delivery of the first A330P2F to our customer CDB Aviation. With this first of many more to come conversions, we proved to meet customer expectations in these very challenging times”.
Significant Demand for the A330P2F…
The A330P2F has had a busy start to 2022, to say the least.
Only in February did CDB Aviation sign the deal with EFW for 12 A330-300P2Fs and the first has been delivered already, which is an exceptional turnaround time.
The delivery of the first to mas will make the carrier the launch customer of the type in the Americas.
Later on in that month, Qantas announced that it would be converting two A330s for P2F use before a massive order was announced in March by ATSG for 29 A330P2Fs as well.
What Next?
The P2F program does have a good opportunity to generate sales at the upcoming Farnborough Air Show, where all eyes will be on the likes of EFW for more conversion options.
If a sales campaign is generated for this aircraft type, then it will probably go up against the likes of the A350 Freighter & Boeing 777X Freighter variants as well.
But given how much of a quick success this program has been so far, there is probably plenty more to come in terms of actual orders for conversions.
For those who may not be able to afford the A350F or 777XF, the A330P2F program will probably be the next stop they make at the nearest chalet at Farnborough.
All eyes are on this program to see how much success will be generated moving forward, and it is an exciting project indeed.
