Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH (EFW), a centre of excellence for Airbus Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) conversions, has commenced operation at its new third-party freighter conversion site in Istanbul, Turkey.

This milestone follows the successful induction of EFW’s first A330P2F as planned in October.

Set up in collaboration with MRO company Turkish Technic, the new Istanbul site means EFW now has a total of nine modifications sites carrying out its conversion programmes across the globe.

Jordi Boto, chief executive of EFW, said: “We are glad to get Turkish Technic on board, which has deep experience in maintaining Airbus aircraft.

“By working with partners which have strong structural skills and operational excellence, we will ensure meeting our customer commitments in a robust manner.”

EFW’s A330P2F programme is developed in collaboration with ST Engineering and Airbus, with EFW holding the Supplemental Type Certificate and leading in the overall programme as well as marketing and sales efforts.

To meet demand for Airbus freighter conversions, ST Engineering and EFW have set up conversion sites in Asia, the US, and Europe to ramp up conversion capacity for all their Airbus P2F programmes comprising the A330P2F, A321P2F, and A320P2F.

The A330P2F programme comes with two variants – the A330-200P2F and A330-300P2F – which are both equipped with advanced technology that offers airlines additional operational and economic benefits.

The A330-200P2F can carry a gross payload of up to 61 tonnes of weight to over 7,700km, while the larger A330-300P2F can carry a gross payload of up to 63 tonnes and a containerised volume of up to ~18.581ft³ (~526m³).

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