Airbus Suspends A380 Freighter Development

[NM]

from news.com.au.

March 02, 2007 04:36am
Article from: Agence France-Presse

EUROPEAN aircraft maker Airbus announced that it had suspended development of the cargo version of its giant A380 superjumbo jet after a recent series of cancelled orders.

More to come

UPS was the remaining buyer after EK and Fed Ex cancelled their orders. Last report I saw was that UPS were reviewing their situation. Looks like UPS may have made their decision and informed Airbus.

 

[QF WP]

NM, yes the last I saw on this story was:

The US courier company UPS has threatened to cancel its order for ten Airbus A380s if there are any more delays...​

Perhaps it has happened (the cancellation of the order) or at very least, it is now uneconomical for Airbus to produce the limited number of remaining orders so best to shut it down now rather than dragging further red ink through Airbus's books.


Plus I suppose this story didn't help either:

United Parcel Service Inc. said it ordered 27 Boeing 767-300ER freighter aircraft, worth about $3.8 billion at list prices...
​

 

[QF WP]

NM, found the story to confirm your initial post:

United Parcel Service Inc., the last remaining customer for the troubled Airbus SAS A380 freighter, said it will scrap its $2.8 billion order for 10 of the superjumbo jets later this year...

 

[NM]

And from Australian Aviation Magazine:

* A380 FREIGHTER FUTURE IN THE BALANCE: The embattled Airbus A380 Freighter program suffered another serious setback on February 28 with UPS announcing it was cancelling its order for 10, thus leaving the A380F without a customer.

"UPS had intended to complete an internal study of whether it could wait until 2012 for the aircraft, but now understands Airbus is diverting employees from the A380 Freighter program to work on the passenger version of the plane," the freight company said in a statement. "Based on our previous discussions, we had felt that 2012 was a reasonable estimate of when Airbus could supply this plane," added UPS president David Abney. "We no longer are confident that Airbus can adhere to that schedule."

Airbus subsequently announced on March 1 that it was ceasing work on the freighter. "We have rescheduled the A380 freighter program," spokeswoman Maggie Bergsma said during a news conference, without providing further details.

Following Airbus's revelation of significant delays to the A380 program last year FedEx cancelled its order for 10 (in preference to 777Fs) and ILFC and Emirates switched their freighter orders to passenger aircraft, leaving UPS as the last customer for the A380F. UPS's move came after Airbus announced as part of its Power8 plan that it would temporarily suspend development work on the aircraft.