Spectacular flight displays, a string of aircraft orders and even an eye-catching, freshly painted Dreamliner showcased by the Middle East’s newest carrier made headlines at the most recent edition of the Dubai Airshow, which took place in November 2023.
Also on static display, but keeping a markedly lower profile, were two aircraft that embody one of the hottest trends in the market right now.
The presence of not one, but two Airbus A321 Passenger to Freighter aircraft at such a major air show can be seen as a sign of the interest this category of aircraft is attracting in the industry.
AeroTime even had the chance to jump on board of one of these planes, operated by the Omani carrier Salam Air, and take a look around.
Passenger to Freighter aircraft, or “P2F” in industry parlance, are aircraft originally built for the passenger market, often serving quite a few years as airliners, which have undergone a thorough transformation process to turn them into dedicated air freighters.
In the last five years, this segment of the market has not only seen double-digit growth, but a flurry of activity from the major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and a whole ecosystem of specialized MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) firms that carry out this transformative work.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a major accelerating factor for the P2F conversion industry. When the near total cessation of passenger flights coincided with a sudden jump in air freight demand, many operators looked at the possibility of repurposing part of their suddenly idle airliner fleets.
In an article published on July 2023, Gediminas Ziemeles, CEO of Avia Solutions Group [the parent company of AeroTime – Ed. Note] is also a major P2F operator through its SmartLynx subsidiary, detailed the extent of the cargo market boom during the pandemic, which saw rates essentially doubling.
The industry responded by increasing capacity. In the article, Ziemelis, quoting industry data, explained how the number of P2F aircraft conversions is expected to peak at 180 per year in 2025, up from approximately 70 per year before the pandemic.
But this dramatic capacity ramp up, plus the stabilization and then drop in air freight demand and rates following the pandemic has led many to question whether the growth of the P2F industry can be sustained for much longer.
“There is no oversupply in the market at this moment,” explained Jordi Boto, CEO at Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW), one of the world’s major players in the global market for P2F conversions. “The pandemic accelerated some trends that were already there.”
A long-time partner of Airbus, which owns a 45% stake in the company, EFW has nine MRO facilities around the world where it performs the conversion from passenger to freight aircraft.
Boto named three major factors driving the P2F market, all of them likely to continue over an extended period of time.
The first and main driver, according to Boto, is demand for the replacement of old fleets of Boeing 737 Classic aircraft as well as B767 and 757 freighters.
Boeing traditionally held a dominant position in the market for freighter aircraft, but these models, which are still the backbone of many a cargo operator, are beginning to show their age.
In 2016 Boeing introduced the Boeing 737-800 BCF (“Boeing Converted Freighter”), the freight conversion of its best-selling 737-800 airliner and, while the type has done well commercially so far, the other OEMs are ready to challenge its hold on the market.
To contest the narrowbody freighter market, Airbus, which, until recently did not really have an aircraft in this category, launched the A320 and A321 P2F versions of its popular aircraft family. This opened the P2F path to a large pool of active A320ceo family aircraft that are aging and being retired from passenger service.
In this regard, Boto pointed out that the rate of conversions could slow down due to the supply constraints currently experienced by the industry, as many airlines opt to retain older airplanes in response to recovering passenger demand, rather than converting them into freighters.
“We started looking at air cargo operations quite a few years ago as it was the natural path of growth for the airline, but it is only when an aircraft like the Airbus A321 P2F became available that we decided to jump in,” explained Edvinas Demenius, Chief Commercial Officer at Riga-based operator SmartLynx [also part of the Avia Solutions Group – Ed. Note] . “Until then the narrowbody freighters that were in the market were mostly versions of the Boeing 737 Classic series or the Boeing 757, old aircraft. But as a major Airbus…
Read More: experts review the current state of the market and what’s ahead – AeroTime