Airbus Freighter Conversion's launch customer for the A320 passenger-to-freighter (PTF) conversion programme has found a client to lease three of the jets, but target certification has been pushed back to late 2012.
AerCap, a lessor headquartered in the Netherlands, signed an order for 30 of the conversions in 2008, and has now struck a deal with West Atlantic under which the European cargo carrier will take a first A320PTF in November 2012 and two more in early 2013.
However, the economic downturn has forced Airbus to amend its certification schedule for a second time. The airframer originally planned to start work on the first A320PTF at the beginning of 2011 and complete it at the end of that year. The first delay saw the target certification date slip to mid-2012. Now it has moved again, to November 2012.
Michael Fuerst, Airbus Freighter Conversion's vice-president of marketing, says the first of the West Atlantic aircraft will be the prototype A320PTF, on which Airbus now plans to start working at the EADS EFW facility in Dresden at the end of 2011.
Starting the A320PTF deliveries at the end of 2012 was deemed to make more sense given demand and aircraft availability. "We thought it wasn't ready," Fuerst said during the Cargo Facts Aircraft Symposium in Miami. "We need the right feedstock and the right prices of feedstock."
The on-ramp cost of an A320PTF is now $9-11 million, comprising $4.5 million for the conversion and $4.5-6.5 million for the aircraft itself. Fuerst says the feedstock price is down "at least a few million" compared with when the A320PTF programme was launched.
The first four A320s to be converted will all start the process by the end of 2012, he adds. Airbus plans to convert 15-16 aircraft in 2013.
A second A320PTF conversion line to join the one in Dresden is slated to open in 2013, via a partnership with Russia's United Aircraft. Once both lines are at full capacity, Airbus will have the capability to convert 30 aircraft annually: 15 at each centre.
Source: Flight International
