The cargo subsidiary of Air China has received the first of eight used Airbus passenger aircraft that are being retrofitted to transport shipping containers on the main deck.

Elbe Flugzeugwerke, an Airbus joint venture company that specializes in aftermarket engineering projects, announced Friday that licensed contractor Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Corp. (Ameco) converted and delivered an Airbus A330-200 to Air China Cargo.

It is the first time that Air Cargo China will operate the A330-200. The national flag carrier currently has three Boeing 747-400 and nine Boeing 777 freighters. Air China Cargo is expected to dispose of four Boeing 757-200s that have not been in service for several months. It operates two domestic routes and 14 international ones, with its main base in Shanghai. Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific has a 24% ownership stake in the cargo airline.

EFW publicly disclosed for the first time that Air China Cargo early this year signed a contract for the passenger-to-freighter conversion of eight A330-200s. Air China, which revealed its intentions in a securities filing last April, is discontinuing use of the widebody aircraft in its passenger fleet and transferring them to its cargo division. A second aircraft is already undergoing conversion in the production hangar, EFW said. The rest of the planes are expected to be delivered in 2024 and 2025.

Ameco is the largest provider of maintenance and overhaul services for aircraft in China. It signed a partnership agreement in November 2022 to install EFW-designed conversion kits at its facility in Chengdu.

The A330-200 converted freighter has a gross payload of 61 tons at a maximum range of 4,200 nautical miles. It is more suited for heavier, general cargo while the -300 is the preferred choice for lighter e-commerce shipments because of its extra volume.

EFW has set up new conversion sites in China, Turkey and the U.S. to meet rising demand for cargo reconfigurations. Conversion facilities were swamped with orders for the past three years, but airline and lessor interest has slowed to a trickle this year because of the prolonged downturn in air cargo shipping.

Sichuan Airlines last summer became the first Chinese airline to operate an A330 converted freighter after it was converted in Shanghai by another airframe modification specialist on EFW’s behalf.

Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.

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