Jetrader - Winter 2014 - 10

Q&A

Robert T. Convey
Vice President - Sales & Marketing,
Aeronautical Engineers, Inc.

Jetrader recently caught up with Robert T. Convey, vice president - sales & marketing, Aeronautical Engineers, Inc. Formed in 1958,
Aeronautical Engineers Inc. (AEI) is the oldest conversion company in existence today. For more than 55 years, AEI has provided advanced
engineering solutions to aircraft owners and operators. As a global leader in passenger-to-freighter conversions for a wide array of aircraft, AEI has developed over 120 Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs). Here, Convey shares his insight on the passenger-to-freighter
conversion market and AEI's role in the narrowbody sector.

Jetrader: How did you get started in this
industry?
Robert T. Convey: Prior to joining AEI,
I ran an aviation museum for about 10 years
in Santa Monica, California. We collected
World War II-era fighter aircraft. That's
what got me interested in the aerospace
market. I'm a pilot, so I was able to fly
some of the aircraft. After that, I got into
the for-profit side of the industry with
Aeroquip in hydraulic and valve sales.
Then 15 years ago I started with Structural
Integrity Engineering, which was just
launching a 757 conversion program. That
was my first introduction into the freight
conversion business.
I joined AEI in August of 2009. We had
been somewhat slow after the 2008 downturn, but about 30 days into my new role,
I secured two conversions for MNG Airlines,
a Turkish freight company. That started
the ball rolling. We're now dominating the
classic conversion market.

JT: Tell us about AEI's history. What's the
main focus at AEI currently?
RC: AEI was formed in 1958 by
James Addison. He was strictly an engineer
and didn't get into the metal or the aircraft
side of things. We've always been in narrowbody; we've never ventured into large,
twin-aisle aircraft. In the early days, our
work focused on DC6s, DC8s and 727s. More
recently, it has been 737-300s and -400s,
along with growing interest in the -800s
and -900s. We are also going a little smaller
with the CRJs and the MD80. Overall, the
focus of the company has been narrowbody
aircraft conversions.
JT: Talk about the passenger-to-freighter
conversion market and what's happening.
RC: The narrowbody market is, for multiple reasons, still very much alive and
strong. In fact, it is growing.
Fuel price is what, I think, initially
caused the widebody conversion market to

10 The official publication of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading

collapse. That is in addition to the number of 777s on the market with extremely
large belly capacity. The increased ability
and infrastructure of airports to move
freight around efficiently, compared
to what they had been able to do in
years past, is another driver for reducing the number of dedicated main deck
freighters.
If a passenger airline has the ability to
move 50,000 to 70,000 pounds of freight
per airplane, which can quickly move onto
another aircraft and onward to its final
destination, this reduces the downtime
and increases the efficiencies. It makes
the freight forwarders lean toward using
the lower-cost freight in the belly. In
years past, they weren't as efficient, so
the transit times were not acceptable to
most customers. There's always going to be
a need for main-deck only freight, perhaps
for high-priced specialty goods, demand
driven/just in time supply chain items or

Jetrader - Winter 2014

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