PACAVI Group reported on the progress of the company’s first-to-market Airbus A320/A321 passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversion program, confirming first orders for the PACAVI Freighter LITE.

Customers for the freighters include Colt Aviation/Colt Cargo, the Norwegian company Airline Management AS, and two more companies that cannot be revealed yet. An additional launch order has been issued by an undisclosed leasing customer.

Colt has ordered two converted A321 freighters with an option for an additional one; Airline Management AS will acquire six A320 freighters.

“It’s the kind of companies like Colt Cargo that our turnkey packages of airframe sourcing, purchase, customized conversion, and leasing or sale are tailored for,” said PACAVI chief executive Stephan Hollmann. “The small to medium sized operator market is huge, and we have just the right product for these customers.”

“The PACAVI A321 freighters are the perfect addition to our fleet of Boeing 737-400 freighters and 757-200 freighters, with the perfect range and payload, state of the art fly-by-wire technology, and low operating costs,” said Alex Eckmann, CEO of Colt Aviation. “They will be excellent workhorses and contribute greatly to our innovative, high-performance logistics concept.”

The PACAVI Airbus A321 Freighter LITE will carry approximately 27 metric tons of cargo, flying routes of up to 3,500 nautical miles, depending on load weight.

The Freighter LITE conversion includes a new 140-inch main deck cargo door, a Class E cargo interior, a 9G barrier and a manual cargo loading system.  A typical configuration would accommodate up to 13 88-inch x 125-inch x 82-inch unit load devices (ULDs) or pallets and one smaller container or 88-inch x 61.5-inch pallet, resulting in a main deck container volume of about 5,044 cubic feet and an additional lower deck cargo volume of 1,828 cubic feet.

The PACAVI Group specializes in sales and leasing of aircraft, STC program management, aircraft conversion engineering, and related activities. Its principal offices are in San Diego, California, and Bremen, Germany.