Airbus A320P2F

The idea of giving used A320 airliners a second life as freighters took shape in 2006 within Airbus Freighter Conversion GmbH (AFC), a Dresden-based EADS subsidiary owned by Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW) with 32 per cent, Airbus with 18 per cent and the Russian companies UAC and Irkut with 25 per cent each. The division of labour was clear: EFW and Irkut would handle detailed design and engineering, while Airbus would take on the tasks not specific to the project, design approval and certification of the converted type. Airframes were to be converted in Dresden and in Zhukovsky, Russia.

On 16 July 2008 the launch customer, AerCap, signed a firm contract to convert 30 of its passenger A320s and A321s. The second-hand market worked against the scheme, however: demand for used aircraft to keep flying passengers was so high that suitable airframes were not available for conversion, and on 3 June 2011 Airbus announced that all partners were ending the programme in that form; AFC was wound up.

On 17 June 2015 ST Aerospace, now ST Engineering, signed agreements with Airbus and with their joint subsidiary EFW to relaunch passenger-to-freighter conversions of the A320 and A321. The A321P2F went first: it flew for the first time on 22 January 2020, received its EASA supplemental type certificate in February, and Qantas put it into service in October 2020 on behalf of Australia Post. At the time Airbus saw a market for around a thousand narrowbody conversions between 2020 and 2040.

Work on the first A320 conversion began at EFW in March 2021. The chosen airframe was serial number 2737, an A320-232 delivered new to Brazil's TAM in 2006 and later flown by IndiGo. It was registered D-AAES in EFW's name, although the conversion was eventually carried out at ST Engineering's facilities in Singapore. There the A320P2F made its maiden flight, lasting about three hours, on 8 December 2021, and at the end of March 2022 it received its supplemental type certificate.

The first announced operator was Nairobi-based Astral Aviation, which was due to receive an aircraft leased from the Middle Eastern lessor Vaayu Group from the second quarter of 2022. According to French Wikipedia, that first example was ultimately delivered in July 2022 to the Indian carrier Pradhaan Air Express; the two accounts have not yet been reconciled with an independent source.

As on the A321P2F, the conversion removes the cabin windows and passenger doors and installs a large hydraulically actuated main-deck cargo door. Airbus pitches the aircraft at domestic and regional express parcel operations. According to English Wikipedia it can carry up to 27 tonnes over 3,500 km, with room for 14 large containers or pallets on the main deck and 10 LD3 containers in the lower holds. French Wikipedia gives more conservative figures: 21 tonnes on 11 AAY pallets and 7 LD3-45W containers, with a range of 3,420 km. The difference may reflect different configurations and remains to be checked against manufacturer documentation.

Conversion specialists are mainly interested in the A321 and, in some cases, the A320 as well, because the capacity of their main deck and holds exceeds that of Boeing's narrowbody freighters, from the 737-300F to the 757-200F. Alongside the ST Engineering and EFW programme, C Cubed Aerospace in San Diego has been developing its own conversion, the A320CCF, since 2022; it has not yet been certified.

The main obstacle is feedstock. A worldwide shortage of parts and engines means that many owners earn more by parting out a used aircraft that is still airworthy than by selling or leasing it, and the intensive use made by low-cost airlines, key customers for the A320 family, ages their fleets quickly. That situation, French Wikipedia notes, may restrict the supply of second-hand airframes on which conversion programmes depend.