Note: The following article is excerpted from the current issue of Cargo Facts Update. We encourage those of you who do not already subscribe to the monthly printed Cargo Facts newsletter, and its companion the weekly Cargo Facts Update, to click here for more information.
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).