Airbus has decided to officially take on Boeing by launching a new product. While freight has
always been on the back burner for the European manufacturer, this is all set to change with
the launch of the A350F, made public during its second half 2021 results presentation.
Airbus has been lagging behind Boeing when it comes to the freight market. While it
has offered a handful of aircraft dedicated to freight, it hasn’t sold a freighter since 2015.
However, it’s hoping to change that with the launch of the cargo version of the A350.
For some months now, we’ve heard a trickle of rumors about a possible Airbus A350 freighter.
It seems that they were on the Money. It appears that Airbus is aiming to deliver
the first of this new type in 2025, meaning that we still have some time to go before
we see such an aircraft grace the skies. Beyond receiving board approval to launch the aircraft,
details about the plane remain few and far between.
Commenting on the aircraft, Airbus Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury said,
“Furthermore and following Board approval,
we are enhancing our product line with an A350 freighter derivative, responding to
customer feedback for increased competition and efficiency in this market segment.”
Airbus had intended to offer a freighter version of its giant A380 aircraft. The variant would have
been able to transport 150 tonnes over a range of 5,600 nautical miles (10,400 km). Except
for the single An-225 built, it would’ve had the highest capacity of any freighter.
The aircraft proposal wasn’t a failure in the earlier part of its development.
In fact, four customers placed orders for the A380F. Emirates wanted two,
and International Lease Finance Corporation eyed five. Meanwhile, cargo giants UPS and FedEx signed
up for ten jets each. However, Airbus never even got around to building a test aircraft,
and the orders were all eventually canceled. Qatar had said previously that it wanted to be
the launch customer for a freight version of the A350. In May, the Group’s CEO, Akbar Al Baker,
told the Simple Flying Future Flying webinar, “Definitely, we will be at the front of
the queue. We will be soon replacing our current fleet of freighters, and
we would want to replace it with the best freighter that is available.
We would be very happy to be the launch customer of the new variant…”
However, the major Airbus customer is currently embroiled in a spat with the European planemaker.
Qatar Airways is now not taking delivery of any new Airbus A350 aircraft. It says it has seen a
faster than expected degradation of the surfaces underneath the paint job on some aircraft.
The issue was first discovered when a Qatar A350 flew to Dublin to get a special paint job.
As for Airbus’ new offering, the future aircraft design will be quote
“predominantly coming from the -1000.” Choosing this larger variant as a
freighter platform will see the planemaker trade extended range capabilities for cargo capacity,
which certainly won’t be a problem for most operators and their routes. However, we’ll have
to wait and see what kind of specifications are published and how they might compare to existing
Boeing freighters- or even the 777X freighter, if and when it eventually gets announced...
Are you excited to see Airbus launching a freight version of the A350?
Let us know what you think in the comments below!