American all cargo carrier to operate "preighters"
Operating a fleet of B767 freighters until now, North Carolina-based 21 Air has entered into a long-term sub-service partnership agreement with AELF and Maleth Aero to begin charter operations with two A330-200 this month.
They are configured as "auxiliary freighters" with the seats removed providing substantial additional cubic volume and weight capacity for loose upper deck cargo, allowing the carriage of e-commerce, mail bags, pharma, PPE, certain perishables and general cargo.
The lower deck is standardly equipped with 8.5 PMC pallet positions. These unique aircraft are capable to carry a maximum payload of 50 t, and 232 cbm.
21 Air, as the marketing representative for this venture, plans to satisfy specific flight programmes that meet these requirements for several international routings. (ah)