Travel restrictions reshape freighter conversions in China

Strict travel restrictions and COVID-19 quarantine requirements for flight crews and aircraft managers are reshaping the induction and redelivery process for aircraft undergoing passenger-to-freighter conversion at MROs across China. Once a routine process, aircraft redeliveries now rely heavily on the use of chartered jets or incredibly precise crew planning just to get aircraft into and out of China. Also rare are aircraft handovers or formal redeliveries to operators based outside China that take place within the confines of the country. Sun Country Airlines, which had planned to introduce 737-800BCFs to its fleet in spring 2020, was one carrier that found itself navigating the redelivery of an aircraft converted in China during the early days of the pandemic. The Minnesota-based low-cost — and now CMI — operator had agreed in late 2019 to operate ten of the narrowbody freighters on behalf of Amazon. “There were just all kinds of logistical things that we had to work through that we were sort of just trying to manage it as it came because everything was changing,” said Chief Operating Officer Greg Mays. “Our teams that were supposed to oversee records and things like that, they couldn’t be in the location, which is very abnormal.” Timing it right While COVID-19 measures vary from province to province, MROs located at airports with international passenger services tend to offer the clearest pathway for crews to avoid lengthy quarantines without having to charter a private jet. For MROs located at airports without robust international flight links, redeliveries have required more complex workarounds. The STAECO facility in Jinan (TNA) is located at an airport with limited international services, but houses active conversion lines for 737 freighter conversion programs developed by both Boeing and Aeronautical Engineers Inc. The first 737-800BCF to join the Sun Country Airlines fleet was converted at TNA and left the airport in March 2020. Instead of going straight to Sun Country’s Minneapolis (MSP) base, however, the aircraft made a stop in Everett (PAE). It wasn’t until nearly a month later that the aircraft would leave PAE for MSP. [caption id="attachment_416616" align="alignleft" width="560"] There are seven conversion locations in China, six of which provide touch labor for 737NGs.[/caption] Even today, ferrying an aircraft out of Jinan requires bringing in pilots on a chartered private jet originating in a neighboring country, such as South Korea, or letting crews undergo a two-week quarantine, said Gary Weissel, managing officer of Tronos Aviation Consulting, which has managed five 737-800SF conversions at two MROs in China for multiple clients. Even when crews arrive in Jinan on a chartered aircraft, inbound flight crews have just hours to get the freshly converted freighter off the ground. “The two airplanes have to sit on the tarmac within about 100 yards of each other. The flight crew can’t go anywhere except between the two airplanes,” Weissel said. “If they stay longer than four hours, they are stuck in a two-week quarantine.” For MROs located at airports with better connectivity, including Shanghai (PVG), Guangzhou (CAN) and Xiamen (XMN), there are workarounds that can keep crews out of multiweek quarantines. “Xiamen has been a little bit easier” because of the availability of international flights, Weissel said. “You can get crews in, although depending on which city they’re coming from, the service is extremely limited and may only be once a week,” he said. In one case, crews were able to depart XMN after three days of quarantine and multiple negative COVID-19 tests. Although staff and flight crew availability vary depending on the conversion customer, redelivery challenges are STC-agnostic. “Travel restrictions around the world have complicated travel to varying degrees, including the ferrying of newly converted freighters,” confirmed Richard Greener, SVP and manager of GECAS Cargo, which has to date converted more 737-800s to freighter configuration in China than any other lessor and leases the 737-800BCFs on Sun Country’s AOC to Amazon. Ferry flights rack up extra mileage Once a completed freighter has been successfully ferried out of China, onward ferry flights to an operator can be circuitous. “You can’t do certificates of airworthiness or export certificates of airworthiness on anything in China [with a North American or EU registration] because you can’t get regulators into China,” Weissel said. “You physically have to ferry the airplanes out of China, and then you have a designated airworthiness representative meet them in some other country to do exports.” Regulators have, however, been willing to issue ferry permits remotely, so that redelivery inspections and aircraft export can be completed elsewhere. Returning to the delivery pattern for 737-800BCFs stopping at PAE on their way to Sun Country Airlines, the aircraft have been passing through the Aviation Technical Services MRO facility. “That’s where the aircraft were brought in and technically accepted, and then bridged over into our maintenance program,” Mays said. Despite the “copious amounts of challenges” associated with getting the aircraft out of China, Sun Country Airlines began flying ten 737-800BCFs for Amazon as part of the original deal and has since added two more aircraft in service. “Our cargo partner may choose to operate all twelve in a schedule or they may choose to hold one as a spare, but the total fleet that we’ve got here at Sun Country is twelve,” Mays said. Few hitting the brakes on conversion in China The added hassle of navigating travel restrictions has not been a deterrent for most aircraft owners and lessors converting in China. In late August, Tronos coordinated ferry flights to China to induct aircraft for two separate customers. One exception, BlackRock, which is in the process of converting eight 737-800SFs with AEI, had planned to convert three units in China but exchanged one of the slots for a U.S.-based MRO. BlackRock’s remaining four are also being converted at the Commercial Jet facilities in Dothan (DHN) and Miami (MIA). This story originally appeared in the September 2021 issue of Cargo Facts . Cargo Facts Symposium, taking place LIVE Oct. 25-27 at the Wynn Las Vegas, is the essential event for stakeholders in the air cargo industry. Learn more and register at www.cargofactssymposium.com .

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