Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW) today announced the redelivery of its first Airbus A330 Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) converted aircraft to Altavair, a global leader in commercial aviation finance and leasing providing the cargo community with valuable assets.
The redelivered freighter kicks off a series of freighter conversions that EFW is carrying out for its new customer, Altavair, based on the proven and technologically advanced Airbus A330 platform. Altavair has on order several A330P2F comprising both the A330-200P2F range variant and the A330-300P2F volume variant.
“We are delighted to re-deliver our first converted freighter of 2022 to new customer, Altavair, for operation by MasAir Cargo,” said Andreas Sperl, CEO of EFW. “The A330P2F program is considered very popular delivering best-in-class capability and fuel-efficiency. We are confident it will serve Altavair and MasAir Cargo well.”
“This investment reflects our belief that the A330 will be the premier freighter going forward in the widebody segment,” said Paul Newrick, President & Managing Director of Altavair (UK). “We are very excited to be teaming with EFW and MasAir Cargo to deliver this truly next-generation converted freighter.”
EFW’s first redelivery to Altavair is the A330-200P2F variant, which offers a gross payload of up to 61 tons and a range of up to 4,200 nautical miles. At lower cost-per-ton compared to other available freighter aircraft types in this size segment, the A330-200P2F will help enable the operator, MasAir Cargo, to expand into new markets and fly longer routes.
MasAir Cargo is taking advantage of the aircraft family concept to build up a new Airbus freighter fleet with the A330-200 and A330-300P2F, becoming the first airline in the Americas to operate the Airbus widebody converted freighter, and first in the world to operate the two Airbus A330P2F variants.
The A330-200 and A330-300P2F are a collaboration between ST Engineering, Airbus and EFW, which is leading the overall programme. To meet the rising demand for freighter conversions, ST Engineering and EFW will set up new conversion sites in China and the U.S. this year and ramp up total conversion capacity for all their Airbus P2F programmes to about 60 slots per year by 2024.
