CONVERSION, MRO, & MANUFACTURER NEWS

摘要

A conversion ultimatum from QATAR AIRWAYS: Akbar El Baker, the CEO of Doha-based Qatar Airways has made no secret of the fact that he wants AIRBUS to develop a passenger-to-freighter conversion program for the A330-200. Preferably with the touch labor done in Doha, and with Qatar's sixteen A330-200s as the first aircraft to be converted. The reason is simple enough. The carrier is going to replace its A330-200s with 787s, which will begin to arrive in the second half of 2011. It wants to operate some of them as freighters in its own fleet, and move the rest into a leasing subsidiary. When he first brought the matter before the public, El Baker said he wanted a Qatar Airlines-controlled conversion facility to do the actual conversion work, but although he seems to have dropped that demand, he has ratcheted up the pressure by making a public statement at the Farnborough Air Show late last month that if Airbus did not come through with a promise to launch a conversion program for him by the end of this vear, "then we will have to look to Boeing to supply us converted freighters.