Turkish Technic Hits Milestone in A330P2F Conversion, Completes Upper Frame Shell Cut-Out

Elbe Flugzeugwerke’s (EFW) MRO partner Turkish Technic has carried out the Upper Frame Shell (UFS) cut-out for the very first converted A330 passenger to freighter (P2F) aircraft.

This milestone was achieved at Turkish Technic’s Istanbul facilities.

The aircraft is scheduled to be redelivered in the middle of the year to EFW’s customer Air Transport Service Group (ATSG).

Turkish Technic is the most recent conversion house to support the P2F Airbus conversion programmes of the German freighter conversion firm, with nine conversion sites on three continents.

“We are glad to have Turkish Technic with its deep experience in maintaining Airbus aircraft on board,” said Jordi Boto, chief executive of EFW, a joint venture between Singapore-based ST Engineering and France-headquartered Airbus.

“We are happy to reach this milestone on the first conversion as we partner with EFW to meet high level demand in the market,” said Mikail Akbulut, chief executive of Turkish Technic.

“We’re looking forward to providing the best possible performance for our customers with our extensive structural and avionic modification capabilities.”

In 2022, ATSG committed to a total of 29 Airbus A330P2F conversions with EFW.

The commitment reflects a strategic step in diversifying the lessor’s existing in-service fleet of 117 aircraft with the addition of next generation widebody freighters.

“The A330 will provide a solution to ATSG customers seeking a freighter that offers both operational and economic benefits,” said ATSG chief commercial officer Paul Chase.

EFWs A330P2F programme comes with two variants – the A330-200P2F and A330-300P2F.

The A330-200P2F can carry a gross payload of up to 60 tons of weight to over 7.700 km, while the larger A330-300P2F can carry a gross payload of up to 62 tons and a containerised volume of up to ~18.581ft3 (~526m3).