AEI completes 600th freighter conversion

Miami-based AEI achieved a milestone today when the latest 737-800 modification became the company’s 600th freighter conversion.

AEI has been converting freighters since it was founded in 1958.

Sixty-five years and 599 conversions later, the 2000-vintage 737-800SF (28235, ex-Caribbean Airlines) completed its conversion today and will be redelivered to GA Telesis, AEI told Cargo Facts.

Unit 28235 arrived in March at the Commercial Jet facility in Miami (MIA) ahead of its conversion.

With the completion of unit 28235, AEI has converted more than fifty 737-800SFs since the program was officially launched in 2014.

Even as the freighter market cools down, AEI has continued to secure conversion orders for its 737-800SF program from a diverse set of customers that include Democratic Republic of Congo-based Serve Air and Singapore-based Transcend Aero Services.

The conversion house also reached a deal with China-based HNA Group to launch a conversion line at its GCAM facility in Haikou (HAK) and convert up to three 737-800s.

In addition to the GCAM line at HAK, AEI now has:

• Multiple conversion lines at the Commercial Jet facilities at MIA and Dothan (DHN);
• one line at the KF Aerospace facility in Kelowna (YLW)
• one line at the STAECO facility in Jinan (TNA); and
• one line at the HAECO facility in Xiamen (XMN).

By the fourth quarter of 2022, AEI had received regulatory approvals for its 737-800SF from bodies such as:

• Brazil’s Agencia Nacional de Aviacao Civil;
• the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority;
• the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia;
• the Ministry of Civil Aviation of Egypt; and
• Indonesia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

AEI previously told Cargo Facts that it expects to convert up to fourteen 737-800SFs, three 737-400SFs, two CRJ200SFs, one MD-88SF and one MD-83SF in 2023.

The 737-400SF, -300SF, 727-200SF, MD-80SF, DC6 and CV440 are a few of the conversion programs AEI has developed over the past sixty-five years.

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