The air cargo world is gearing up to welcome its newest addition – a converted Airbus A320
freighter aircraft. The plane was recently delivered to its customer in Singapore
and will start flying for a cargo company in India soon.
The A320 P2F represents the growing need of the cargo industry for freighter conversions,
as airlines increasingly realize the potential of such planes.
On July 15th, ST Engineering and Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW) announced the redelivery
of the Airbus A320 Passenger-to-Freighter (A320 P2F) aircraft to launch customer
Vaayu Group at ST Engineering’s airframe facility in Singapore.
This A320P2F is the first of several converted freighter aircraft that will be leased to Vaayu.
ST Engineering’s Commercial Aerospace business had signed an agreement
in February to lease up to five Airbus A320P2F aircraft to Vaayu Group (Vaayu).
Jordi Boto, CEO of EFW, commented,
“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 continues to surge.
Our full suite of Airbus P2F solutions will serve to meet the current gap
and future growth of the air freight market, while offering excellent choices and benefits
to airlines looking to grow a diverse fleet of freighter aircraft with operating commonality.”
The A320P2F can accommodate up to 10 (ULD) containers and one
pallet position in the main deck, as well as 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 containerized volume of 159 cubic meters, (approx. 5,600 cubic feet),
the freighter aircraft has a stowage efficiency of 85%.
The aircraft will enter into service for Pradhaan Air
Express, a new all-cargo airline in India and a sub-lessee of Vaayu.
Pradhaan Air announced on July 6th that it has received the
No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from the India’s civil aviation ministry and is
expected to begin commercial operations later this year.
The airline is set up by the founder of airline general sales agency Zeal Global Corporation,
Nipun Anand, and will be based in Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Anand commented,
“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.”
When it comes to the specific aircraft used for this first conversion,
the 16.34-year-old Airbus A320 entered service with TAM in April 2006 as PR-MBB.
After just over a decade flying for the Brazilian carrier, ATDB.aero notes that it spent just over
a year at Spire Flight Solutions as M-IBAL. However, it remained unused during this time.
From April 2018 to October 2020, it served Indian carrier IndiGo as VT-IHM,
before joining ST Engineering for its conversion in February 2021.
Are you looking forward to seeing more A320s converted into freighters?
Please let us know in the comment section below.