The A380 Freighter may be in limbo, but Airbus could ultimately return to the market with a much improved design
The decision by United Parcel Service (UPS) to turn its back on the A380 Freighter after Airbus "interrupted" the development programme to throw its weight behind sorting out the passenger version, has left the industry wondering whether this spells the end of the airframer's ambitions in the very large freight sector.
The cargo variant was part of the original A380 family that was launched into production in December 2000. Offering a range of 10,400km (5,600nm) with a typical payload of 152t, the A380F is, like its passenger counterpart, unique in offering operators an unprecedented amount of cabin volume.
The aircraft had accumulated 27 orders over the past seven years - primarily from express package carriers FedEx Express and UPS, although seven freighters were also ordered by Emirates (two) and International Lease Finance (five). Since the A380 production crisis began last year, one by one, Airbus has lost each of its freighter customers, with UPS the last to decide to cancel, earlier this month.
UPS says its move was prompted by Airbus's decision - having just agreed a new delivery schedule starting in 2012 - to redeploy its A380F team to support the A380 passenger aircraft and the A350 development effort. This move damaged UPS's confidence that Airbus could achieve the new delivery schedule, prompting the cancellation.
Airbus counters that this move was justified because the five-year interval to the new service-entry date was sufficient to develop an all-new aircraft, and the A380F is simply a derivative - albeit a major one - of the passenger model.
Although the A380F is still officially on offer, it is unclear if or when the programme could be reactivated. Bob Dahl, project director at US air freight industry consultant Air Cargo Management Group, says that while "there is no assurance that the A380 will have a future as a freighter", he is optimistic that Airbus will return to the market, and with a better, more capable aircraft.
Dahl says that as the original A380-800F was designed, it was better suited to package freight operators than the general freight market. This was because of its high volume but relatively low cargo density of 8lb/ft3 (128kg/m3) compared with the 10lb/ft3 of the 747-8F and 777F. "Airbus will be able to address this once they've developed the follow-on passenger models," he says.
Dahl predicts that once Airbus has resolved the problems with the passenger version and "is delivering improved follow-on longer-range or stretch versions, it will come out with a freighter that has higher capacity than the original A380-800F offered".
Although all-747F operator Cargolux was on the A380/A3XX advisory committee from the early days of the programme, it became a launch customer for the 747-8F. Lucien Schummer, the airline's vice-president alliances and strategy, says that although Airbus "listened to us" when developing the A380F, certain aspects of the design were not negotiable.
"The A380's design is basically a passenger aircraft, so there was no option of a nose cargo door or increasing the main deck pallet height above 8ft [2.44m]," he says.
This puts the A380's main deck height 0.6m lower than that of the 747 and 777F and Dahl says that while Boeing's 3m height "is not a magic number", he concedes that the A380F's lower ceiling could be an issue for some operators. "The 747 and 777 offer a better match for interlining," he adds.
One reason suggested for the A380F's failure to catch on with general freight airlines such as Cargolux is the fact that its triple cargo deck layout requires bespoke handling equipment at every airport it serves, limiting its ability to operate outside the world's main cargo hubs.
But Dahl does not see the ground infrastructure as a major long-term issue. "Cargolux is a unique case as it has worldwide traffic rights and wants to be able to fly its aircraft anywhere in the world, so the ground infrastructure would be more of an issue for them than, say, Air France or Lufthansa Cargo, which would only have a relatively small number of airports that they would wish to serve with an A380F," he says.
When it was an A380F customer, FedEx Express had predicted it would begin supplementing its fleet by the end of the next decade with converted ex-passenger A380s for use as a regional freighter.
But Dahl believes that for any future A380 freighter conversion programme to be successful, it is important that a new-build freighter is developed to prove that the concept of an all-cargo A380 works and to provide a basis for the design of the after-market offering.
Source: Flight International
