Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW), has received validation of its Supplement Type Certification (V-STC) by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for its Airbus A330 Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) aircraft conversion programme.
The conversion company, a joint venture by ST Engineering and Airbus, said the validation enables customers with A330 aircraft registered in China to easily undergo conversions under the EFW programme, whether in MRO sites in China or in other countries.
This milestone was achieved alongside with the first-ever A330 freighter converted in China, which has been redelivered by EFW to its customer CDB Aviation for lease to Sichuan Airlines.
The A330P2F aircraft for CDB Aviation was converted at ST Engineering´s airframe facility in Shanghai, Shanghai Technologies Aerospace Company.
“Offering conversions in China to serve the high demand in this growing market was an important strategic decision for EFW,” commented Jordi Boto, EFW chief executive.
“We are very pleased to have successfully started this journey together with CDB Aviation, our first customer with A330P2F conversions on three continents, and we are very grateful for the trust they have placed in us.”
To meet the demand for Airbus freighter conversions, EFW and ST Engineering set up in total nine conversion sites worldwide in recent years to ramp up total conversion capacity for all their Airbus P2F programs comprising the A330P2F, A320P2F and A321P2F.
In China, besides Shanghai, there are also conversion sites, namely for the A330P2F in Chengdu as well as for A321P2F in Guangzhou and Tianjin, which is a third-party conversion site by Haite.
EFW’s A330P2F programme is developed in collaboration with ST Engineering and Airbus, with EFW holding the Supplemental Type Certificate and leading in the overall program as well as marketing & sales efforts.
The A330P2F programme comes with two variants – the A330-200P2F and A330-300P2F. The A330-200P2F can carry a gross payload of up to 60 tons of weight to over 7.700 km, while the larger A330-300P2F can carry a gross payload of up to 62 tons and a containerized volume of up to ~18.581ft3 (~526m3).
In February, EFW and Chinese MRO solutions provider Sichuan Haite Hi-Tech (Haite) signed a letter of intent (LOI) for a collaboration on Airbus P2F conversions.
https://www.aircargonews.net/services/freighter-conversions-mro/efw-sees-demand-for-freighter-conversions-accelerate/
