Alfor Aviation (Alfor) has advanced plans for a £50 million aircraft conversion campus at Teesside International Airport following a visit to the site by the company’s senior leadership.
The visit follows the signing of a 50-year agreement at the recent Farnborough International Airshow. Under the deal, Alfor will develop a purpose-built passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversion facility comprising new hangars, engineering workshops and warehousing.
The project is expected to create 250 permanent, highly skilled jobs and begin operations by the end of 2027. Once fully operational, the facility will have capacity to convert up to 24 passenger aircraft into freighters annually.
Alfor executives Mahmut Metin Eren, Hazal Avci, Yildirim Beyazit Kilincarslan and Omer Mafa toured the site on August 12, and held talks with airport management on the next stages of the development.
The company also plans to relocate its global headquarters to Teesside as part of the investment.
Phil Forster, Managing Director of Teesside International Airport, said the agreement represented a major endorsement of the airport’s growth strategy, adding that Alfor’s conversion technology would strengthen its air freight ambitions.
The new campus will add aircraft conversion to Teesside’s growing aviation capabilities, which already include maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and aircraft painting. Existing operators at the airport and its business park include Willis Aviation, Airbourne Colours and Draken, while Teesside also has a cargo agreement with FedEx.
Alfor said the new centre would significantly expand its production capacity and enable it to address growing global demand for P2F conversions, driven by e-commerce, express freight and integrated logistics networks.
