Listen: A321F turns 2 amid more freighter orders

News of freighter orders and conversions made headlines across the industry this week, including A350F deals at the Singapore Airshow, a new 777F order and more A330P2F conversions . Beyond acquisitions of widebodies, the narrowbody A321 freighter turns two years old this week. What does that mean for the market for other narrowbody freighters, and future conversions? In this episode of “Cargo Facts Connect,” Deputy Editor Jeff Lee and Associate Editor Andrew Crider discuss news from the Singapore Airshow as well as A321 and 737 developments. A transcript is available below. This transcript has been generated by software and is being presented as is. Some transcription errors may remain. Andrew Crider Hello and welcome to this episode of cargo facts connect the podcast of cargo facts, the newsletter of record for the air cargo and freighter aircraft industries for over 40 years. I'm your host Andrew Crider, associate editor of cargo facts. Jeff Lee And I'm Jeff Lee, deputy editor. Andrew Crider Jeff, it's been a busy week for the freighter world. With some announcements coming out of the Singapore Air Show. We had Singapore Airlines firming up its a 350 order and Etihad also committing to A350Fs. Time will only tell as more and more operators look to revisit their fleet lifecycle plans with increased demand. When airframes are aged out of service, and replaced, we continue to see its not exactly a one for one swap for aircraft with the same category? How do you feel about the 350 loi Etihad signed with Airbus? Jeff Lee Well, it's an interesting deal, isn't it because we know that Etihad right now has five triple seven freighters after having sold one early last year. And on the passenger side, they used to have more than 20, triple seven, both 300ers and 200LRS. But we also know that they intend to cut down that fleet and they are cutting down that fleet. And I think they intend to basically step away from operating the the triple seven on the passenger side. Even though they still have triple seven X's on order with Boeing, we don't know that the exact status of that. And at the same time, they are they've taken delivery of five new A350 1000s And they have 20 more on order. So with that, we don't exactly know if they intend to replace the triple seven F but that is likely. And it would make sense given the kind of harmonizing the fleet around the 350s and seven eight sevens. But the number that they have in this commitment, seven means that they'll be growing their their freighter fleet and capacity that they'll be able to offer so that's interesting and we'll see when they when and whether they firm up this this commitment. Andrew Crider We will have to see. also on the wide body front we saw the addition of a330 P2Fs to CDB aviations Orderbook. Jeff Lee Yeah, and they put in a very large order with EFW for 12. We know they only have two right now undergoing conversion. And those will come out of conversion soon and join mas air. But they have apart from ordering 12 more They have also secured two new customers in China for these some of these freighters. One being Sichuan airlines, which isn't new to freighters or the 330 platform. That airline has three production a330200 freighters and, of course, several a330 300 and 200 on the passenger side. And we know that they had been looking to grow their freighter fleet both on the wide body side and the narrowbody side so I guess you know, given the that freighters are in high demand right now. It's not surprising that they decided to go for the 330 P two F and the 300p2F in particular, which will give them a bit more volume. And then the other new customer is a new startup Jiangxi cargo airlines, which is a joint venture between the provincial government and Hongyuan group, which interestingly, as we know, they will soon Have 2 747 Dash eight F's flying for them on a CMI basis with air Belgium. And it's just yeah, interesting to see this company become more and more involved in the actual operational and carrier side of things. Andrew Crider This week also marks the second anniversary of the certification of the first a 321 freighter. And we looked a bit more closely at the 321 market and our overview, we're seeing some interesting competition in the narrowbody space, aren't we? Jeff Lee We are. And as we said in that overview, there are only eight, a 321 freighters in service right now. Two years on, but that is going to change very quickly. And this year alone, I think we're about to see at least six to eight more that will be completed by both EFW and 321 precision conversions. And we will see 321 freighters beginning service with new operators. So first will be Lufthansa Cargo, which already has the first unit on property in Munich. Soon we'll see Indigo in India, a bit further down the line global crossing airlines in the US and potentially even astral aviation, which actually also revealed itself as the first operator of a 320 P2Fs. And that prototype aircraft has been is flying in Singapore and will probably soon UFW will get the certification for that program. And we'll see that head off to Astral. Andrew Crider That's true. And we'll hopefully have a 3rd 321 conversion program certified by the end of the year, because we know that sine Draco inducted his prototype last year and expects to complete the conversion in the months ahead. Jeff Lee Yeah, that will be interesting to see. And we're not too far off that. But moving on to 737 NG's will also see some new entrants. This year with South Korean low cost carrier Jeju air telling us that they will start they intend to start operations with a 737 800 BCF around June that aircraft is currently in conversion in China. But before that, we should see copa airlines in Panama launching commercial service with its first 737 800 BCF and nordstar in Russia, also with 737 BCFs, and even JD cargo airlines in China. Andrew Crider So a lot of exciting developments in the weeks ahead. It's only February. We look forward to covering these. That's all the time we have for today. And for those of you listening thank you for tuning in to this episode of cargo facts Connect. For more multimedia content like this, check out cargo facts.com and search cargo facts connect on iTunes Spotify. Join us again next time Subscribe to Cargo Facts Connect on iTunes or Spotify , or download the episode on Transistor . Cargo Facts EMEA will take place LIVE May 9-11 in Dubai. Learn more and register.

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