ST Engineering and Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW) have announced the redelivery of the ‘head of version’ Airbus A320 Passenger-to-Freighter (A320P2F) aircraft to launch customer Vaayu Group (Vaayu) at ST Engineering’s airframe facility in Singapore. This A320P2F aircraft is owned by the aviation asset management business of ST Engineering and is the first of several converted freighter aircraft that will be leased to Vaayu.
The redelivery marks the birth of the world’s first A320P2F and completion of the Airbus P2F family developed jointly by ST Engineering, Airbus and EFW. It joins the other already operational Airbus P2F platforms, the A330-300P2F, A330-200P2F and A321P2F, which were first redelivered in 2017, 2018 and 2020 respectively. The A320P2F is the second variant in the Airbus narrow-body P2F solution. Similar to the A321P2F, the A320P2F was developed using original OEM data from Airbus which makes the design all the more robust and reliable. As the centre of excellence for Airbus P2F conversions, EFW leads the overall programme as well as marketing and sales efforts.
The current global Airbus A320 passenger fleet comprises thousands of aircraft, offering a wide selection and numerous fitting options for airlines and leasing companies wanting to invest in converted freighters. The A320P2F can accommodate up to ten [ULD] containers and one pallet position in the main deck and seven container positions in the lower deck. Given its gross payload of up to 21 tonnes at a maximum range of 1,850nm and total usable containerised volume of 159m3 (approx. 5,600ft3), the freighter aircraft has 85% stowage efficiency. This makes the A320P2F an ideal freighter platform to serve the fast-growing ecommerce market globally.
