AirAsia Grows Teleport Fleet with A321P2F

DALLAS - By adding three A321P2Fs to the fleet of its dedicated cargo subsidiary, Teleport AirAsia (AK) is increasing its market share in the cargo sector.

Next year, Teleport will add the full modified freighters, with the first joining the airline in Q1.

In November 2021, Teleport began operations with a single K-Mile Boeing 737-800BCF. Despite a 630 percent increase in Q2 delivery volumes to 1.15 million, volumes were actually down 27% to 22.1 tonnes and revenues were down 39% to RMB 98.9 million.

As foreign traffic in Asia improves, the company, which mainly relies on belly space in AirAsia's 200+ aircraft, hopes to enhance performance in HY2.

The three additional freighters will increase Teleport's clout. The lessor BBAM, which has already leased two of these aircraft to Lufthansa Cargo (LH) on a long-term lease, will supply the A321P2Fs.

AirAsia doesn't specify if the planes will be converted from its own fleet under BBAM contracts or from BBAM's own portfolio of 56 A321s. With fourteen container positions on the main deck and ten additional positions in the belly hold, each A321P2F has space for up to 28 tonnes of cargo.

Comments from Teleport CEO

Teleport CEO Pete Chareonwongsak said via a media statement, “It is a timely and strategic move on our part to complement our exclusive AirAsia passenger belly planes with a freighter network to expand and reinforce our increased capacity for key markets like China and India into Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations]. The combined fleet approach with multi-hub freighter and belly operations will give us a unique “many to many” network advantage to serve our customers in this region.”

Teleport has also witnessed strong growth in e-commerce. In its Q2 report, it said that an e-commerce partner accounted for ten percent of Teleport’s delivery volume. Chareonwongsak underscores the growth in this segment, saying, “E-commerce continues to be the main force propelling air cargo growth around the region and here at Teleport, especially with key growth in segments like international cross-border e-commerce and express shipping.”

Featured image: Teleport AirAsia