Passenger-to-Freighter Conversion

San Antonio Aerospace (SAA) ends the year with a big bang!

ST Engineering’s airframe facility San Antonio Aerospace (SAA) celebrated a major milestone in the company’s history. The San Antonio, Texas-based business unit delivered its first-ever passenger-to-freighter conversion, the first A321 P2F aircraft by our EFW joint venture with Airbus that was completed in the United States. The aircraft, with Manufacturer Serial Number (MSN) 1199, is owned by ST Engineering’s aircraft leasing arm ST Engineering Aerospace Resources, and will be operated by Global Crossing Airlines. This will be the first cargo aircraft operated by the Miami-based airline.

Led by SAA’s Director of Aircraft Conversions, Ken Gursky, the Production and Supporting departments at SAA worked closely with engineering teams in Singapore, Dresden and Mobile to carry out the work on the aircraft. Following the conversion work and a heavy maintenance check, MSN 1199 conducted a very successful demonstration flight, after which it was flown to a third-party facility for painting.

From this first P2F delivery, SAA gained a great deal of knowledge and expertise that will be useful when they shift their attention to other P2F aircraft that are already undergoing conversion work in San Antonio.

ST Engineering, through EFW, is the only aircraft conversion house in the world offering Airbus freighter conversions through Supplemental Type Certificates developed using OEM data, and the first in the world to deliver A330-300, A330-200, A321 and A320 converted freighters.