LONDON – ST Engineering, a Singapore based technology company, and Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW) a Germany based aerospace company announced that they have successfully delivered an Airbus A320 Passenger to Freighter (A320P2F) conversion aircraft to its launch customer Vaayu Group.
The handover took place at ST Engineering’s airframe facility in Singapore, marking the first ever such P2F conversion for A320 family aircraft, and has been named termed as ‘head of version’.
The Airbus A320P2F aircraft, which is owned by the ST Engineering’s aviation asset management business, has marked a birth of world’s first ever A320P2F and completion of the Airbus P2F family developed jointly by ST Engineering, Airbus and EFW.
The new A320P2F will now be joining other operational Airbus P2F platforms which includes the A330-300P2F, A330-200P2F and A321P2F, all of which were delivered in 2017,2018 and 2020 respectively.
The Airbus A320P2F is the second variant in the narrow body P2F solution after A321P2F. This has been developed using the original OEM data from the Airbus, making design more robust and reliable.
EFW leads the overall program as well as marketing and sales for as it represents the center of excellence for Airbus P2F conversions.
As the current global Airbus A320 passenger fleet units comprise of more than 1000 aircraft, this offers a wide selection and fitting options for the airlines, carriers and the leasing companies which are interested in investing in converted freighter categories.
The A320P2F can accommodate up to 10 ULD containers and single pallet position in the main deck, along with seven container positions in the lower deck of the converted aircraft.
This offers a gross payload of 21 tones and a maximum range of 1850 nm (2129 miles), with total usable containerized volume of 159m3.
The freighter aircraft have 85% stowage efficiency making the A320P2F an ideal freighter platform to serve the fast-growing ecommerce market globally.
Speaking on this remarkable day, CEO for EFW, Jordi Boto said: “With this redelivery, our Airbus P2F family of narrowbody and widebody freighters is finally complete. This comes at a ripe time as demand for converted freighters continue to surge.”
“Our full suite for Airbus P2F solutions will serve to meet the current gap and future growth of the air fright market, while offering excellent choices and benefits to airlines looking to grow a diverse fleet of freighter aircraft with operating commonality.”
Similarly, the widebody A330P2F will be offering two variant options, A330-200P2F and A330-300P2F, which can carry gross payloads of 61 tonnes and 63 tonnes respectively over a range of 7,700km.
This brings in a whole new paradigm of efficiency, with an added 23% cargo volume over other freighter aircraft in the same P2F class.
ST Engineering and EFW have set up new conversion suites in China and the United States this year to meet the surging demand for P2F aircraft, which will enable the duo to ramp-up conversion capacity for all their Airbus P2F programs to over 60 slot units per year by 2024.
As the maiden member of A320P2F, Vaayu Group’s Chairman Emad Al Monayea expressed their company views, saying:
“With this redelivery, we expect the world’s first A320P2F to provide an efficient and credible freighter solution to our customers that are looking to leverage the current and forecast demand in air freight growth.”
“We are pleased that our partnership with ST Engineering, EFW and Airbus has created aviation history in the Indian market by placing the aircraft with Pradhaan Air Express.”
CEO and founder of India-based Pradhan Air Express has expressed their joy, saying that “The world’s first A320P2F for the Indian market will secure dedicated cargo capacity boosting more self-reliance.”
“Getting the world’s first A320 converted freighter to India is like a dream come true. A second aircraft will be inducted by the end of this year with plans for further fleet expansion.”
