We continued to leverage our expertise in nacelle manufacturing and aftermarket services to offer new solutions when we took on the distributorship for the thrust reverser spare parts of CF6. This enabled us to provide reliable, round-the-clock component availability support to airlines and operators. Airbus Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) Conversions Amid global macroeconomic pressures, the air cargo industry ended the year strong with full-year demand for air cargo coming close to pre-pandemic performance. This translated into another solid year for our freighter conversion business, as the number of aircraft we inducted for our Airbus P2F programme rose from 16 in 2021 to 29 in 2022. Interest in our P2F solutions stayed robust, with a number of airlines placing repeat orders with us. New customers included Air Transport Services Group, which committed to a total of 29 A330P2F conversions. Such strong demand resulted in the conversion slots for our A320/321P2F and A330P2F programmes being fully booked through 2026. We reached a significant milestone when we redelivered the world’s first A320P2F aircraft. With all our Airbus P2F platforms now in operation, our programmes will be even more attractive to airlines seeking to grow a diverse fleet of freighter aircraft with proven solutions. To grow our freighter conversion business, we continued to increase our capacity by setting up new modification sites in Shanghai, China and Mobile, U.S. To augment these efforts, we also entered into collaborations with Turkish Technic and Ameco, which will respectively provide third-party conversion services in Istanbul, Turkey and Chengdu, China for the A330P2F programme starting in 2023. At the time of writing this report, we announced our intent to work with Sichuan Haite Hi-Tech for it to carry out conversions for our A321P2F programme. We continued to leverage our expertise in nacelle manufacturing and aftermarket services to offer new solutions. The air cargo industry ended the year strong, translating into another solid year for our freighter conversion business. AEROSTRUCTURES AND SYSTEMS Our Aerostructures and Systems business saw several new developments during the year that paved the way for continued growth. The manufacturing business recovered steadily as production rate improved in line with OEMs’ rising demands. Our freighter conversion business continued its story of growth. We also made new developments in the areas of aircraft modification and Unmanned Air Systems (UAS), bringing new and exciting solutions to the market. Nacelle and Composite Manufacturing We continued to ramp up the production volume of our biggest nacelle programme, the A320neo, according to the requirements of the OEM, Airbus, and increased production of the aircraft platform from the monthly rate of 45 units in 2021 to around 50 in 2022. Orders for our other nacelle product lines such as the Bombardier Global 7500 and Boeing 767 Tanker stayed at healthy levels during the year. As the sole supplier of composite floor panels for Airbus’ commercial aircraft, our composite manufacturing activities also rose in tandem with increasing production by Airbus. CORPORATE OVERVIEW PERFORMANCE REVIEW SUSTAINABILITY FINANCIAL REPORT 29
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