Vendor troubles slow delivery of Amazon freighter aircraft

In This Article:

Closeup view of a large jet with patches on its fuselage where technicians have installed new sections to change the plane into a freighter.
Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH specializes in tearing down used passenger aircraft, like this Airbus A330-300, and rebuilding them with a large cargo door and other features for carrying shipping containers. (Photo: EFW)

Amazon has four fewer Airbus package freighters for peak season than planned because the company responsible for converting the planes from passenger to cargo configuration is behind schedule and temporarily shifting production out of the United States until it can build a qualified workforce and supplier base. That has prompted charges of mismanagement from the lessor providing the aircraft.

Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH (EFW), a joint venture between aircraft manufacturer Airbus and Singapore Technologies Engineering, promised to deliver 10 rebuilt Airbus A330-300 widebody jets by the fourth quarter for use by Amazon’s private cargo airline. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has received six of the A330 cargo jets since September 2023 and placed them with Hawaiian Airlines to fly in its domestic air distribution network under a 10-year transportation services agreement.

In an interview earlier this year, EFW Chief Executive Jordi Boto acknowledged shortcomings with the production process at sites in San Antonio and Mobile, Alabama, which he attributed to subpar training and workforce shortages stemming from the lingering effects of aviation industry layoffs during the COVID crisis. He said the company planned to relocate freighter conversion work to facilities in Asia and Europe until training and recruiting could be brought up to standard.

Final work is being carried out on the remaining aircraft at both modification sites, and no more conversions will be carried out in San Antonio and Mobile in 2025, EFW spokeswoman Anke Lemke said in an email last week.


Amazon is leasing the Airbus cargo jets from Seattle-based Altavair, which owns the aircraft and contracted with EFW to retrofit them for carrying shipping containers on the main deck.

Altavair CEO Steve Rimmer said EFW’s problems mostly resulted from a deliberate decision to prioritize ST Engineering’s more lucrative airline maintenance and repair work at the U.S. production sites, not supply chain disruptions plaguing the entire aircraft manufacturing and conversion industry. ST Engineering’s commercial aerospace unit is a global provider of maintenance, repair and overhaul services (MRO) for aircraft, engines and components.

Rimmer accused EFW of protecting a majority shareholder’s interests over customers when it moved skilled labor from the Mobile conversion line to fill gaps at ST Engineering’s next-door maintenance shop and Airbus’ manufacturing plant for A220 and A320 family passenger jets as airline operations recovered and demand for aircraft increased.

“They saw an opportunity as Airbus’ production lines in Mobile started gearing up again to rent labor to Airbus. Conversion customers were clearly left behind in the dust. The skilled labor is there. They’ve just chosen to allocate it to other higher-yielding things,” Rimmer told FreightWaves in a phone interview.