keynote feature Converting the
The A320P2F Mock-Up is winched into the cavernous main cargo deck of an A300-600ST (SuperTransporter)
market
‘Beluga’, itself a specialised freighter modification of a standard passenger aircraft
The global freighter fleet will double over the next two decades, predict the major 20-year forecasts produced by Airbus and Boeing, the world’s two largest aircraft manufacturing companies. Helping to meet the demand for extra cargo-carrying capacity will be the conversion of ageing passenger aircraft to full-freighter configuration. Mike Bryant reports
O
ver the next 20 years, aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing estimate that anything between 2,500 and 4,000 freighter deliveries will be required to keep pace with rising demand – and helping to achieve that target
will be the conversion of passenger aircraft into freighters in tandem with the assembly line production of newbuild capacity. Boeing predicts that 1,750 aircraft will undergo passenger-to-freighter modification programmes. Converting older passenger aircraft that have a relatively
12 AIR LOGISTICSCHINA
low sale value, particularly in a passenger market served by an increasingly modern fleet of new-generation people- carriers, is an effective way of bolstering an airline’s balance sheet by prolonging the service life of ageing aircraft. But, as with many predictions, the recent global
economic downturn rather upset the apple cart. According to Dan da Silva, vice president freighter conversions at Boeing Commercial Aviation Service: “The unprecedented drop in air cargo traffic in 2008 and 2009 caused conversion orders to all but cease in these years
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