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Boeing completes first 737-800BCF conversion at Gatwick
Aircraft heading to Camex Adria Airlines
Boeing has completed the first 737-800BCF conversion at its London Gatwick (LGW) facility, the second European site to convert a 737NG into a freighter.
Icelease, which owns the 737 (33973, ex-FlyEgypt), expects to take redelivery of the 2004-vintage aircraft in the coming days, the lessor told Cargo Facts.
Unit 33973 is Icelease’s first 737-800BCF and will be joined by units 33975 and 28645 later in March, Icelease told Cargo Facts, adding that it expected to place unit 33973 with its lessee this month.
Unit 33973 will join Camex Adria Airlines, the new Slovenia-based subsidiary of Georgia-based Camex Airlines.
The inaugural Icelease 737-800BCF christened Boeing’s LGW conversion line in April 2022. Boeing opened the LGW line as part of Boeing’s expansion of conversion capacity, a move announced at the Dubai Airshow in 2021. Boeing then announced in July 2022 that it would add a surge line at LGW.
Icelease sent the 2005-vintage unit 34251 (ex-Belavia) to LGW in December 2022 for conversion. Another Icelease 737-800 (30879, ex-TUIfly) arrived at Boeing’s conversion facility in Shanghai (PVG) on Feb. 23 and will begin conversion in the next couple of weeks, Icelease said, adding that its next three inductions will take place in April, May and July.
Boeing’s other 737-800BCF conversion sites are at the Taikoo (Shandong) Aircraft Engineering Co. Ltd. (STAECO) facility in Jinan (TNA), which completed its seventieth 737-800BCF in February, the Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Co. (GAMECO) facility and the Cooperativa Autogestionaria de Servicios Aeroindustriales (COOPESA) facility in San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO).
A new 737-800BCF line will open at the KF Aerospace facility in Kelowna (YLW) this year.
Boeing’s LGW line joins Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) line at the Atitech facility in Naples (NAP) as 737NG conversion sites in Europe.
Icelease for its part, is investing in both types of narrowbody conversions. The lessor told Cargo Facts last year that it would purchase its first A320-200 and send it (2480, ex-Vietnam Airlines) to 321 Precision Conversions for conversion.
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