KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia Group Bhd is in talks with Airbus SE regarding the latter's freighter version of the A321neo aircraft, AirAsia cargo division Teleport chief executive officer Pete Chareonwongsak said today.
Chareonwongsak said AirAsia would seek to convert some of its 362 orders for the passenger version of the A321neo narrowbody to a dedicated freighter.
"We are in discussion with Airbus, I'll be honest and they always been a big advocate in A321 in general to be used as a freighter for Southeast Asia specifically just because of the fact that it has a great operating cost structure and obviously larger than the 320 series.
"For a lot of the markets that we need to reach both in range but also in capacity, it's a great product.
"Would we be the launch customer? I don't know. We'll see," he told reporters after the virtual launch of Teleport's dedicated 737-800F Freighter across key routes in Asia today.
Teleport chief operating officer Adrian Loretz said the company will be starting with six fleet of 737-800 Freighter until 2023, reinforcing its position as a formidable regional player in the cargo and logistics business.
"It is the first one of many to come. The plan is to absolutely to expand on that fleet.
"We are going through the assessment now as to how many. I think initially, we were planning with six but as we analyse the market more we understand that there is actually a large demand going forward," he said.
The addition of the dedicated freighter brings Teleport's current active fleet to a total of 252 planes (including AirAsia Group's passenger planes) and will enable greater consistent capacity on key air cargo routes across Southeast Asia.
Stationed in Bangkok, the aircraft is able to reach key markets including Hong Kong, Shanghai, Chennai, Mumbai and all the major destinations in Southeast Asia from Thailand, connecting long-haul markets to Southeast Asia through containerised capacity.
"The addition of the freighter into our fleet will accelerate the company's goal to shift from a pure air freight logistics provider to a complete multi-modal operator," Chareonwongsak said.