Astral Aviation has emerged as the launch customer for the Embraer E190F passenger-to-freight conversion program.
The world’s largest regional aircraft leasing company, NAC (Nordic Aviation Capital) has agreed a memorandum of understanding to place the first two E190F passenger-to-freight conversions with Astral Aviation, which is based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Embraer and NAC reached an agreement in principle to take up to 10 conversion slots for E190F/E195F in May 2022. The first delivery will be starting from 2024. The aircraft for conversion will come from NAC’s existing E190/E195 fleet.
Sanjeev Gadhia, Founder & CEO Astral Aviation, said, “We are honored to be the launch operator of the Embraer 190F, which will be based in Astral’s Nairobi hub. It will operate on a combination of scheduled and charter flights on our intra-African network. The E-Jets are well known for their efficiency, flexibility and sustainability. We are confident that the E-Jet freighter platform will be a game-changing addition to our growing fleet. We are grateful to NAC and Embraer for choosing Astral to be the launch operator of the E-Jet Freighter.”
Astral Aviation, with a fleet of 15 freighter aircraft, operating to 50 destinations across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia from 4 hubs, is amongst the fastest growing freighter airlines in the world.
Norman C.T. Liu, President & CEO of NAC, said “As a launch lessor for the E-Jet freighter conversion program, we are pleased to have executed a MoU to place two E190F aircraft with Astral Aviation, a leading cargo carrier servicing Africa. NAC aims to remain the leader in regional aviation and expand into larger narrow body aircraft, while building our full life cycle asset management capabilities.”
Johann Bordais, President & CEO, Embraer Services & Support said, “The response to Embraer’s P2F program, which was launched only in March of this year, has been incredible. NAC has already placed their first two aircraft, and it’s great to welcome yet another operator to our E-Jet family.”
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The E190F and E195F are the ideal aircraft to take over larger aircraft operations that are suboptimally deployed both in weight and volume. With much lower emissions and smaller operational costs they can carry similar volume as their larger counterparts.
