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While many conversion programs are suffering for lack of feedstock — even twenty+ year old feedstock — there seems to be no shortage of A300-600s. Even very young A300-600s are available. This week Abu Dhabi-based Maximus Air Cargo took redelivery of a freighter-converted A300-600F at a ceremony in EFW’s Dresden facility (see photo below). The aircraft (msn 837, ex-Japan Airlines) was built in 2006, making it just five years old at the time of conversion, and the youngest Airbus aircraft ever converted to freighter configuration.
This freighter will join two other A300-600Fs already in the Maximus fleet, and the carrier has two more of the type (836 and 797, both ex-JAL) in conversion and scheduled for redelivery this year. EFW’s current A300-600 backlog now stands at sixteen units for three carriers: DHL (13), Maximus Air Cargo (2), and RUS Aviation (1).
David,
I saw it was built in 2002, not 2006 from mutilple sources. but anyway, it is a very young aircraft for freighter conversions. The model was not successful in attracting interests for passenger use.
Hi Jack — I checked, and you are right. 2002-build, not 2006. I think I was looking at the date it was delivered to JAL and not realizing it had originally flown in the Japan Air System Fleet before that. Still, that is a very young airframe to enter conversion.