No holding Airbus’ freighter plans

Date: 23/07/1998

By Bruce Barnard

AIRBUS is not only aiming at Boeing's monopoly of the jumbo passenger jet market.

It also plans to edge out its US rival in the multi-billion-ecu freighter business.

The European consortium plans to bring out an A3XX pure freighter alongside the passenger plane, making a break with the industry practice of cloning cargo planes from passenger jets.

The A3XX long-range freighter will have a capacity of 150 tonnes compared with the 100-tonnes lift of the biggest Boeing 747 freighter.

The freighter market is much smaller than the passenger sector, reflecting the fact that most cargo still flies in the 'bellies' of passenger jets. Boeing forecasts that 650 freighters will be ordered over the next 20 years, of which 160 will be large planes, with a value of 69 billion ecu at today's prices.

Until recently, Airbus had ignored the fast-growing cargo market, limiting its involvement to a special one-off order for 36 A310 cargo jets for Federal Express, the world's biggest air cargo carrier.

But the future A3XX freighter has been welcomed by cargo operators which want an alternative to the costly Boeing 747 transporter.

A group of the world's leading airlines, including FedEx and European carriers which generate more than one-fifth of their revenues from cargo such as KLM, Air France and Lufthansa, as well as Luxembourg-based all-cargo carrier Cargolux Airlines, are advising Airbus on the design of the new plane.

Meanwhile, Airbus partners British Aerospace and Deutsche Aerospace are working flat out to convert a backlog of nearly 100 Airbus passenger jets into freight carriers as tougher noise restrictions at European airports spell the end of popular cargo planes, such as earlier versions of the Boeing 727.