Against the backdrop of strong demand in the air global market, ST Engineering and Airbus’ joint venture, Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW), have received an order for four Airbus A321 Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) conversions from new customer, GTLK Europe, a top-tier global leasing company based in Dublin, Ireland. Three of the four aircraft will be inducted for conversion this year, with the fourth conversion to be carried out in 2022.
The A321P2F is the first in its size category to offer containerized loading in both the main and lower decks (up to 14 and 10 container positions, respectively.) With a generous gross payload capability of up to 28 metric tons (about 61,800 lbs) over 2,300 nautical miles, the A321P2F is the ideal narrow-body freighter aircraft for express domestic and regional operations.
To meet the rising global demand for dedicated freighter aircraft, ST Engineering and EFW introduced a conversion site in China at the end of 2020 and will be setting up another site in the U.S.A. in 2021. Expansion plans are also in the works to support the rising demand for the wide-body A330P2F program, which is currently carried out at EFW’s facility in Dresden, Germany.
