LONDON – On May 23, Global Crossing Airlines Group, the Miami-based charter carrier, announced the leasing of its first Airbus A321 Freighter aircraft to Avianca.

Their New A321 Freighter…

Global Crossing Airlines Group, also known as GlobalX, has signed a multi-year charter agreement for its first Airbus A321 P2F (Passenger to Freighter) aircraft to join Colombian-based Avianca, specifically their Avianca Cargo division.

This first P2F also marks GlobalX’s beginning of their XCargo division which is expected to grow to a total of 13 Airbus A321 P2Fs, with commitments for an additional seven on top that they will acquire and convert Airbus A321s from its agreements with lessors into P2F aircraft.

GlobalX has also stated that they expect these aircraft to all be operational in the converted aircraft market between October 2022 and the end of 2024.

Commenting on this new agreement with Avianca, GlobalX’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ed Wegel, has said, “We are extraordinarily honored that we will be operating our first A321 freighter for Avianca, one of the great and storied names in aviation.”

“The A321 P2F is a great addition to Avianca Cargo’s aircraft fleet, providing it the flexibility to offer cargo services to smaller markets, and to feed Avianca’s A330 fleet at the airline’s main hubs.”

Adding to Wegel’s comments, the Chief Executive Officer of Avianca Cargo, Gabriel Oliva, says, “This partnership will allow us to offer in the short and mid-term, more capacity to our customers starting in 2022, with a clear objective of fulfilling their needs.”

“With this, we will expand our capacity in specific markets, offering more options and products.”

Not only this, but this new agreement could see Avianca Cargo wet-leasing or charter up to four additional P2Fs from GlobalX for a total of five of the type over the next five years until 2027.

Avianca Cargo currently operates a total of six Airbus A330-200 Freighters across primarily Latin America, however, they do also serve Miami, Florida in the U.S. as well as Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Their incoming Airbus A321 P2Fs will help aid their Latin America and North American markets as well as bolster their already existing Airbus A330 Freighter services.

At present, GlobalX currently operates a fleet of just six aircraft, this is broken down as five Airbus A320ceos and one Airbus A321ceo. However, on top of the Airbus A321 P2Fs, they are due, they are also expecting some Airbus A319s and Airbus A330s to join their ever-growing fleet.

Overall…

All in all, the upcoming Airbus A321 P2Fs will be a huge help to Avianca’s Cargo division and we are expecting that this will potentially drive a rapid expansion for them of their services to even more Latin and North American destinations which would further aid their profitability as a group.

Not only this but it is great to see that GlobalX is rapidly expanding its services across the Americas and is interesting to hear about what more leasing agreements they have up their sleeves to disrupt the passenger and cargo ACMI and charter sectors.