AerSale recently started work on the first of 24 owned 757-200 aircraft up for passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversion.

The fleet is presently stored at the company’s Roswell, New Mexico, US MRO facility. The first 757-200 was sent to AerSale’s Goodyear, Arizona, US MRO facility for the conversion work.

The aircraft was originally delivered by Boeing in 1999 to American Airlines. All 24 of the 757-200s are powered by Rolls-Royce RB211-535 engines.

AerSale’s president of aircraft and engine management Craig Wright said: “There is no rival to the 757 as a freighter, and with our younger, high-spec, and well maintained fleet we are ideally positioned to support cargo airlines with turnkey freighters to meet the booming e-commerce market.

“Post-Covid, the lack of freight capacity has been further exacerbated by the dramatic decrease in passenger aircraft flights whose cargo holds have typically carried the bulk of global air freight.”

AerSale’s chairman and CEO Nicolas Finazzo commented: “Because of AerSale’s integrated product and services offerings, we are well positioned to transition a large fleet of passenger aircraft to their best and highest use, whether through outright sale, leasing, or P2F conversions, and at both the whole aircraft and component level for engines and used serviceable material piece-parts. We are confident we can offer our customers these high quality products at competitive prices.”