EFW secured two letters of intent (LoI) with a leasing company and an undisclosed airline for its A321 passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversion program at the Paris Air Show this week.
The company, a 55:45 joint venture of ST Aerospace and Airbus, based in Dresden, Germany said it will finalise the resulting contracts within the next few weeks.
A321 passenger aircraft of both customers will be inducted for conversion into a 14-pallet cargo configuration in 2020. The new orders follow a launch contract that was announced in 2018.
The A321 P2F conversion programme was launched in 2015 together with the A320 P2F P2F development.
While EFW leads the overall program and marketing & sales, Airbus contributes to the program with original equipment manufacturer data and certification support.
ST Engineering is responsible for the engineering development phase, up to obtaining the supplemental type sertificate (STC) approval by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and US Federal Aviation Administration.
EFW chief executive officer, Andreas Sperl said: “We are pleased to broaden our customer base to now include leasing companies as well as airlines.”
The A321P2F conversion program is the first in its size category to offer containerised loading in both the main deck (up to 14 container positions) and lower deck (up to 10 container positions).
With a payload range capability that can carry up to 27.9 metric tons over 2,300 nautical miles, EFS says the A321P2F the narrowbody freighter aircraft is ideal for express domestic and regional operations. Prototype conversion of the A321P2F will be completed by end of this year, while the STC is expected to be obtained in early 2020.
Other P2F solutions marketed by EFW include the A330 that comes with two variants – the A330-200 and the larger A330-300. The first A330-200 and A330-300 converted freighter have been redelivered to launch customer EgyptAir Cargo and DHL Express respectively, while more units are currently undergoing conversion.
