This is a world first. On October 27, Vallair delivered the first Airbus A321 P2F (passenger to freighter), the first single-aisle cargo-converted aircraft of this type, to its launch operator, Qantas. The Australian airline will use the aircraft in its cargo department, Qantas Freight, on behalf of Australia Post. The aircraft was converted by EFW, a joint subsidiary of Airbus and ST Aerospace, in the ST Engineering hangar in Singapore. "The Airbus A321 is the future of cargo conversions," said Grégoire Lebigot, CEO of Vallair. "Not only is it 20% more fuel-efficient, but it is also more efficient in terms of range, volume and payload, with a unique capacity of fourteen container positions on the upper deck and an additional ten on the lower deck usually reserved for cargo," he said.

 In total, the project will have taken seven years to complete. With several other aircraft deliveries already scheduled, the single-aisle cargo conversion system developed by Vallair has already generated strong interest from several other cargo operators around the world. A leasing contract for two other converted A321-200s was recently signed with SmartLynx Malta. And last week an agreement was signed with Global X, a new US airline, for which Vallair has signed a letter of intent to lease ten Airbus A321Fs, all of which will be delivered and operational by the spring 2023.