Awesome Cargo has taken delivery of what will be the first A330P2F registered in Mexico, one of two A330-200P2Fs it plans to put into service this year.
The 2011-vintage aircraft (1252, ex-ITA Airways) will soon leave EFW’s facility in Dresden (DRS) for Mexico and be followed in one or two months by a sister unit (1218) as part of a lease deal with Air Lease, Awesome Cargo founder and Chief Executive Luis Ramos told Cargo Facts at Air Cargo Europe 2025 in Munich this week.
Mexico-based Awesome will begin operating the CF6-powered unit 1252 on existing routes between Mexico and China after regulatory compliance has been completed and it enters the Mexican registry, Ramos said.
Unit 1252 arrived at DRS on Sept. 16, 2024, while its 2011-vintage sibling arrived on Dec. 1, 2024.
The aircraft will become the first A330 freighters to be registered with the Mexican Federal Civil Aviation Agency after the country validated EFW’s STC in November 2024, according to a release from EFW today.
The third aircraft in the deal (1225) will begin conversion with EFW in the next couple of months, Ramos said.
Like unit 1218 before it entered conversion, unit 1225 is flying with Awesome Cargo in Class E cargo configuration without a main-deck cargo door.
Unit 1252 is the sixtieth A330P2F conversion EFW has completed since the first A330-200P2F in 2017. The company said in November 2024 that it was nearing the fifty-unit mark.
Awesome Cargo obtained its Mexican AOC in October 2023. With the arrival of unit 1252 and its two sisterships on the way, Awesome Cargo will become the second carrier to fly CF6-powered A330 freighters. Australia-based Qantas, which operates a pair of 2007-vintage A330-200P2Fs (842 and 853) with CF6s, began flying the aircraft in 2024.
Awesome Cargo will become the third carrier in Mexico to operate fully converted A330 freighters, joining Mas and AeroUnion.
Mas recently expanded its A330P2F lift capacity when it leased a second A330-300P2F (1789) from Airbus and placed it with Galistair Malta for CMI operations. Mas has four A330P2Fs registered in Ireland and one in Malta.
AeroUnion operates an A330-300P2F (791) registered in the United States on behalf of Avianca Cargo and will soon add more of the Airbus freighters.