Page 13 - AAA JANUARY-MARCH 2021 Online Magazine

CARGO

A Virtual of younger, more fuel-efficient aircraft for P2F

conversion. This is likely to impact the aver-
age year. With more feedstock available, the
market value of used aircraft for conversion
has fallen substantially since the beginning of
Lifesaver the pandemic, making the conversion market
even more attractive.

“WE ARE MOVING INTO A
PERIOD WHERE IT IS GOING
TO BE PRIMARILY CONVERTED
FREIGHTERS GOING FORWARD,”
THE DEMAND FOR PASSENGER-TO-FREIGHTER Ed Walton, Managing Director Aircraft
(P2F) CONVERSIONS GROWS AS AIRLINES Engineering, UPS Airlines.
READJUST STRATEGY TO DEAL WITH THE SLOW
RETURN OF PASSENGER TRAFFIC The Way Forward
Industry figures support his statement.
Currently, there are less than 200 new air-
Arun Sivasankaran craft in production, including 50 Cessna Sky
courier ordered by FedEx, 44 units of Boeing
In a much-altered aviation sector that is staring at the reality of 767-300F, 33 Boeing 777 F, 29 ATR 72-600-F,
global passenger traffic not returning to pre-COVID-19 levels until 11 Boeing 747-8F and three A320-200F. Of
2024, a growing number of MRO companies, both new and estab- the over 1,000 deliveries of freighter aircraft
lished, are focusing on the one sector that has benefited from the expected during the current decade, 782 are
ongoing pandemic - passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversions. expected to be P2F conversions. The most con-
verted type will be 737 NG with over 200 units.
The lack of adequate passenger-jet belly capacity is not the The aircraft most converted from 2011-2020
only catalyst for the growth of the P2F conversion market. The was the 737 Classic, with 230 conversions,
exponential growth of e-commerce is not the only byproduct of followed by the 757 and the 767. Half of the
the pandemic that has had an impact on aviation; many airlines current 3,500 strong global freighter fleet is
have failed to survive the crisis, thus increasing the availability made up of Boeing, with the 737 alone account-

ASIAN AIRLINES & AEROSPACE January/March | 13