Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH (EFW) has taken a major step forward with its freighter conversion work in Asia.
The German conversion house, a joint venture by ST Engineering and Airbus, said the first aircraft has arrived for conversion as part of its collaboration on Airbus A321 passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversions with Chinese MRO solutions provider Sichuan Haite Hi-Tech (Haite).
EFW and Haite signed a letter of intent (LOI) for the collaboration in February. Under the partnership, Haite is carrying out P2F conversions for EFW’s A321P2F programme at its facility in Tianjin, China.
EFW said in a LinkedIn post on August 7: "Kick off for the very first Airbus conversion! This week, the first A321 aircraft arrived in China, Tianjin with our conversion partner Haite (Tianjin Haite Aircraft Engineering Co., LTD.).
"The aircraft has been inducted for an EFW P2F (passenger-to-freighter) conversion. Haite is well experienced in conversions for B737 as well as in heavy maintenance for the A320 family.
"With Haite there are meanwhile eight modification sites with conversion lines for Airbus aircraft in EFW’s global P2F network in operation, including in China, which is one of the largest and fastest-growing aviation markets in the world."
In a LinkedIn post, ST Engineering, said: "We have just inducted our first A321 aircraft for Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) conversion at the Tianjin facility of our conversion partner, Haite, in China."
It added: "Through EFW, our joint venture with Airbus, we are one of the world’s largest and most experienced solution providers for freighter conversion. In addition to our newest conversion site in Tianjin, we also have conversion facilities located in Singapore; Chengdu and Guangzhou, China; Dresden, Germany; and San Antonio, US."
