Avensis reversible p2f quick-change conversions set new airfreight trend
INNOVATIVE, resilient, efficient, prudent and transparent… is a list of crucial characteristics which continue to separate those who are only managing the challenges of the global health pandemic from those in the air cargo industry that are truly excelling.
Amidst the global spectre of uncertainty, soaring prices, border closures, capacity shortages, port and airport blockages, driver shortages and overflowing warehouses — a leading global charter broker even recently disclosed to aircargoeye.com that his company forked out some US$2million for a trans-Pacific B777 flight that would normally cost less than $750,000.
Now, the emergence of the new Omicron variant of Coronavirus in southern Africa will test the airfreight industry even further.
Belly-hold passenger aircraft capacity will once again be affected if and when governments and carriers take additional reactionary measures. For example, quick-off-the-mark Qatar Airways wasted no time in announcing on 27 November that it is no longer accepting passengers travelling from southern African countries in its global network. As I write this, the Japanese government has now even suspended all new entries into the country by foreign nationals.
This changing landscape and its ongoing, unpredictable operating climate, requires cargo airlines and combination carriers to be ever more inventive with their product offerings, especially if they want to respond to strong demand in the e-commerce freight shipments sector in particular. As if proof of this were needed, already the passenger-to-freighter (p2f) aircraft conversions market is unprecedentedly buoyant as operators respond to the ongoing capacity paucity.
Meanwhile forwarders — stripped of some of their on-board privileges and guarantees — have begun investing in their own freighter lift in moves which threaten the very life of their traditional relationships with airlines.
“I [also] think the express [freight] market will drive a lot of the design changes to the traditional way of approaching the [architecture] of a freighter aircraft and tailor them into a more efficient operation,” insists Cristian Sutter, chief executive and founder of Avensis Aviation, an aviation engineering and design company which has created four “innovative, scalable and reversible p2f conversion products” designed to meet the flexible needs of both aircraft lessors and carriers.
‘reversible intermediate cargo modification’
One of these products is branded Medius, whose launch customer is TAP Air Portugal. It is described by Avensis as “an environmentally-friendly reversible intermediate cargo modification product” that fully removes a passenger cabin, transforming it into a Class E or Class F cargo compartment. Its Class E Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) — which is shortly to be issued by the European Union’s Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) — will allow the modified aircraft to fly beyond the current EASA cargo/passenger usage temporary exemption deadline of July 31 2022, says the company.
Its sister product, the dual-purpose Medius Combi, features a unique main-deck marriage of the passenger cabin and a full Class F cargo compartment, a capability which enables airlines to profitably operate a mixed passenger and cargo flight balancing act. “The Medius Combi is part freighter and part passenger cabin. It was born to support airlines who fly very low-density flights which are required to keep utilising their slots,” discloses Sutter. “If you do not use your slots, you lose them. It is difficult [financially] for an airline to fly a passenger aircraft with only 30 per cent occupancy,” he points out.
The company’s third product innovation, the Levis, is a reversible light cargo modification whereby passenger seats are removed thereby enabling carriers to place light-weight cargo shipments directly onto the cabin floor. Finally, the Navis is a permanent cargo modification which includes a lightweight ‘plug type’ of main-deck cargo door and a full cargo loading system floor.
Avensis is currently carrying out two A330 Medius conversion projects and three Levis A330 conversions for customer TAP. The entity has already converted an A320 for Sri Lankan carrier Fits Air.Meanwhile, lessor AELF FlightService, which is an ACMI/charter provider for passenger aircraft and freighters, recently agreed to purchase 10 Medius p2f conversion kits for 2022. Operated by its sister company Malta-based airline Maleth Aero, FlightService will work with Avensis to convert its A330 and A340 fleet for ACMI and charter services to be available from early next year.
Cristian Sutter, chief executive and founder of Avensis Aviation
“This is an investment in the passenger-to-freighter space that puts us in a unique position in the marketplace,” explains Joe Cirillo, chief operating officer at AELF. “With the Avensis modifications, the EASA exemption will be a non-issue for us and will allow us to provide much of the same utility as a full freighter.
“From this point forward, we’ll have a continuous and reliable service that shippers and retailers can come back to time and again. It provides strong utility and peace-of-mind for our customers and partners for the long-haul,” Cirillo underscores.
Sutter is an experienced aviation business strategist and lead aircraft cabin designer having in the past managed cabin design programmes at British Airways and TUI. He points out: “I have 20 years of commercial aviation experience in cabin development which gave me a lot of experience in working with leasing companies in terms of specifications and end of lease. I am aware of what you can or cannot do to an aeroplane not only from the technical perspective but also from the commercial and legal perspective of a leasing contract,” he states.
“The idea of creating these four scalable products came not only from thinking of the needs of the [larger] airlines [but also smaller] start-up cargo operations or airlines that are for the first time starting their own formal cargo divisions as [separate] business units. We also cater for the leasing market which has very different requirements,” Sutter adds.
“We have taken into account that a passenger airframe may well be needed back [in its original form] in three to four years’ time when passenger numbers have recovered. So, there is an element of flexibility in those conversions that were not being catered for as a permanent p2f conversion. At the same time, temporary conversions have a relatively limited life, so a temporary solution needs to have a longer life. So, we created our intermediate Medius solution.”
Its biggest unique selling point is that it is a fully reversible conversion — but at the same time it has a permanent STC so there are no limitations under which customers can fly it, and as long as they need too. It is the only [comparable] solution in the market that provides this kind of operational flexibility. Medius has been incredibly popular beyond our expectations. And, obviously, we have the top-of-the-range full freighter conversion [option].”
Avensis, established by Sutter in October 2020, is essentially an aviation start-up itself, now with a pool of professionals with many years’ collective expertise in engineering and aircraft design projects. “When the pandemic started, many [hard-hit] aviation companies and aviation suppliers were directly affected. Our engineers [then] worked for other companies and [suddenly] they found themselves without a job,” Sutter reveals. “They formulated an idea of using their experience to create some p2f solutions, and then I began working with them and we decided to create this company,” he explains.
The start-up does not operate any of its own maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO) facilities, instead it brokers MRO slots with established maintenance bases in Europe, including TAP MRO facilities for the Medius programme. Additionally, Avensis has worked with Sri Lankan engineering MROs for its Levis conversions and also has agreements in place with other MROs in Asia, America and South America.
“We are close to delivering around 10 aircraft at the end of this year,” Sutter states. “Our pipeline of orders for next year is double the total that we have [accomplished] this year,” he enthuses.
“Customers can still fly their aircraft and generate revenue whilst their conversion kits are being manufactured.”
“Obviously, there are engineering adaptions according to the aircraft [variant] depending on each configuration, even if we are talking about the same [basic model]. We are very competitive regarding turnaround times of the modification and we have built in the modification and the de-modification [corrective] time afterwards — in case the airline needs to convert the aircraft back again. It’s a relatively quick turnaround because we have optimised the downtime knowing that the longer the aircraft stays on the ground, the longer the airline is not making revenue,” he adds.
Avensis is also working with a number of carriers currently, with a very small cargo operation, but which harbour ambitious plans to increase their tonnages via future ACMI contracts. “We work closely with [smaller carriers] to understand if they need palletised and containerised cargo within the network of manual loading. [Given] our products are scalable, a customer can start with the immediate conversion and then if their operation grows, [they will then be able] to upgrade their cargo capabilities and instead ship whole pallets and containers around the world.
“If you need a main cargo door, we just upgrade that [aspect of the] conversion and install the cargo door and the cargo loading system. So that makes it a very flexible product and the airline can split the down-time of the aircraft. We are the only ones in the market that are offering this at the moment,” he insists.
Another big issue to overcome is that, with current exaggerated supply and demand constraints, those companies which regularly place relatively large orders with MROs are naturally given automatic priority status. Avensis is therefore able to accommodate those smaller entities. It can install a full cargo door conversion and a cargo loading system outside ‘normal’ operational time-frames.
“Customers can still fly their aircraft and generate revenue whilst their [conversion] kits are being manufactured. This is something that is not being offered [elsewhere] at the moment in the industry — [instead the message] is ‘come back in 2025’,” he notes.
The biggest problem for many small operators is that they will have aircraft which they need to re-convert relatively quickly, so that they can promptly start generating [passenger] revenue again,” Sutter observes. “This is an important ethos of our company — to offer a level of scalability and flexibility to grow the customers’ operations.”
Originally published at https://aircargoeye.com on November 30, 2021.
