A rise in demand for passenger to freighter aircraft conversions has seen Aeronautical Engineers Inc (AEI) select Canada’s KF Aerospace as its fourth authorised conversion centre.
US-based conversion specialist AEI said: “The current success of AEI’s passenger-to-freighter conversion products, which include the Boeing 737-400SF, MD-80SF, CRJ200 SF and soon the B737-800SF, require that additional conversion capacity be added to handle the market demand.”
AEI currently has three active authorised conversion centres worldwide, which include Florida-based Commercial Jet, Commercial Jet Services in Dothan, Alabama, and Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services Co in Shanghai.
These centres offer a total of 11 to 13 conversion lines for AEI at any one time.
In mid-February 2017, AEI signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to provide a minimum of eight CRJ200 freighter conversions for Canadian aviation group Avmax, following an early January order for two CRJ200 SF freighter conversions from Aeronaves TSM.
December 2016 saw AEI bag a third MD-80 series passenger-to-freighter conversion for Alaska based Everts Air Cargo.
AEI added that KF Aerospace, with a “consistent reputation for delivering high quality aircraft maintenance and modification services”, will initially set up one line of passenger-to-freighter conversions for AEI beginning in April of this year. The first aircraft will be a B737-400 freighter conversion.
Since its founding in 1958, AEI has developed over 125 Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs) and has modified over 442 aircraft with the STCs.
KF Aerospace owns the type certificate for the Convair aircraft and is a Transport Canada approved training organization.
With major facilities in Kelowna, British Columbia and Hamilton, Ontario KF's full service aircraft maintenance operations focuses on heavy aircraft maintenance, overhaul, and modifications.
The Canadian group also has a freighter operations arm, KF Cargo, which operates DC-10 freighters in its fleet.
