On your marks in Costa Rica
The first customer has been named, just two months after Boeing announced plans to have B737-800 passenger units converted into freighters by a new partner in Central America (see the ITJ Daily of 17 May 2021). The client is a well-known old partner.
If you want to benefit from the airfreight boom you have to have the funds to hand, and be ready to act decisively. There’s no dearth of raw material – parked passenger units – but the capacities to have them converted into real freighters are limited.
The US aeroplane manufacturer Boeing already has three Chinese partners, namely Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services (BSAS), Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Company (Gameco) and Taikoo (Shandong) Aircraft Engineering (Staeco). It recently added a fourth such company to its roster of partners – the Cooperativa Autogestionaria de Servicios Aeroindustriales (Coopesa), which can supply B737-800BCFs. Though the experienced MRO provider from Alajuela (Costa Rica) can’t start work before the beginning of next year, it already has its first order on board.
In January the BBAM leasing enterprise placed an order for six fixed and six optional B737-800BCFs, a model that is popular for deployment in the e-commerce segment. In July it doubled its stake by placing another order for twelve more units. “We’re proud to be the launch customer for Coopesa’s conversion production line,” BBAM president and CEO Steve Zissis said.
Boeing has estimated that the airfreight market will require approximately another 1,100 narrow-body aeroplanes by the year 2040. It expects 30% of them to be deployed in the Americas; this may have been a motivating factor in selecting a Central American partner.
