Russia’s Volga-Dnepr Group placed a firm order for the conversion of a third 737-400 passenger aircraft to freighter configuration. The conversion will be done at Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services under the Aeronautical Engineers, Inc. (AEI) Supplemental Type Certificate.
Boeing Shanghai has so far converted five 737-400s under AEI’s STC, two for Kenya Airways and three for Shanghai-based Yangtze River Express. The current conversion will be the third 737-400 AEI has done for Volga-Dnepr, but the previous two were performed at the Flightstar facility in Jacksonville, Florida.
The aircraft arrived at Boeing Shanghai at the end of November 2014, where it will undergo a C-check prior to conversion. Following conversion, the freighter will be painted in the livery of Volga-Dnepr’s ATRAN Air Cargo subsidiary, with redelivery scheduled for the first quarter of 2015.
Boeing Shanghai, a joint venture among Boeing (60 percent), Shanghai Airport Authorities, and China Eastern Airlines, is a full-service MRO. When it was formed in 2005, Boeing had planned to offer 767-300BCF passenger-to-freighter conversions there, but the 767 conversion market did not grow as expected, and the focus is now on 737 conversions.