The A330-300 is an excellent complement to the Boeing 767-300 medium widebody freighter, which has long been the freighter of choice for the e-commerce air cargo market.
In order to diversify its existing fleet in service with the addition of next-generation widebody freighters Air Transport Services Group has committed to a total of 29 Airbus A330 Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) conversion slots with Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW). Air Transport Services Group is one of the world’s largest lessors of freighter aircraft,
Mike Berger, Chief Commercial Officer of ATSG said, “The A330-300 passenger-to-freighter conversion is a natural next step for ATSG as it is an excellent complement to the Boeing 767-300 medium widebody freighter, which has long been the freighter of choice for the e-commerce air cargo market. The availability of feedstock combined with impressive cargo capacity make the A330 a very attractive option for conversion and will enable ATSG to continue to meet the demands for full-capacity freighters long into the future. Customers’ response to the news that we will have A330-300 freighters available for lease has been exceptionally strong, and we already have customer deposits towards future leases for half of these 29 converted freighters.”
Andreas Sperl, CEO of EFW said, “To have a key market player like ATSG adopting the A330P2F programme with such a high commitment is a major milestone for us. This is a great sign of confidence in next-generation Airbus freighters and trust in EFW’s competency as a centre of excellence for Airbus freighter conversions.”
The A330P2F conversions for ATSG will be performed from mid-2023 through 2027 mainly at EFW’s facility in Dresden, Germany, and at a new conversion site to be set up in Shanghai, China. Multiple conversions will be carried out in parallel.
Similar to the latest conversion programmes, A321P2F and A320P2F, the A330P2F programme is a collaboration between ST Engineering, Airbus and EFW, which is leading the overall programme as well as marketing & sales efforts. To meet the rising demand for freighter conversions, ST Engineering and EFW are setting up new conversion sites in China and the U.S. this year, and are ramping up conversion capacity for all their Airbus P2F programmes to about 60 slots per year by 2024.
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The A330P2F programme comes with two variants – the A330-200P2F and A330-300P2F – which are both equipped with advanced technology that offer airlines additional operational and economic benefits.
