UK’s Titan Airways takes delivery of maiden A321 freighter

Titan Airways (ZT, London Stansted) took delivery of its first A321-200F dedicated freighter, on dry lease from BBAM, becoming the world’s second operator of the type. G-DHJH (msn 2138), a 20.7-year-old aircraft, was converted at Singapore Seletar airport by Elbe Flugzeugwerke, a joint venture between Airbus and ST Engineering. It was previously operated in a passenger configuration by the now-defunct British leisure specialists MyTravel Airways and Thomas Cook Airlines UK. The aircraft was ferried from Singapore via Chennai and Dubai World Central over the course of January 7-8, 2021. It will be re-registered as G-POWY in the United Kingdom. Titan Airways will shortly take delivery of its second A321-200F, G-NIKO (msn 1250). A third unit of the type will enter into conversion this year. The British carrier’s freighter fleet currently comprises two B737-400(SF)s. The world’s first A321-200F was delivered in October 2020 to Express Freighters Australia (QE, Sydney Kingsford Smith) in October 2020. The aircraft operates on behalf of Qantas Freight. EFW and ST Engineering said that “to meet the rising demand for A321P2F… [they] plan to set up additional conversion sites in China, the US, and Germany which will ramp up its global conversion capacity to 25 slots per year by 2023”.