Stillborn Freighter Loses Last Customer

From the "two can play at that game" file... one day after being reportedly caught off guard by the announcement Airbus was suspending development of its A380 Freighter, sole remaining customer UPS responded by stating it will scrap its $2.8 billion order for 10 of the aircraft.

In comments to Bloomberg, UPS spokesman Mark Giuffre said the freight company concluded Airbus wouldn't be able to meet its own delivery schedule, as a result of its decision to focus efforts on the passenger variant of the mammoth plane.

As Aero-News reported Friday, Giuffre said UPS hadn't been notified by Airbus prior to its decision to halt development on the A380F. The Airbus announcement came six days after the two companies announced they had agreed to a delayed delivery schedule for the A380F, which also gave both sides the right to cancel their plans.

Standards and Poor's analyst Jim Corridore said the decision was probably inevitable.

"It's a rational business decision on both parties' part," said Corridore, a Standard & Poor's analyst in New York. "Airbus makes a lot more money from its passenger planes than its freighters. They need to fix that business. UPS needs to find a partner that's going to work with them."

"It's actually good for Airbus, as it means one less distraction," agreed Doug McVitie, managing director of aviation consulting firm Arran Aerospace. "Not having to work on the freighter for now allows them to focus all their attention on existing customers for the passenger version."

Despite those admonishments, Airbus spokesman Justin Dubon said the European planemaker was "disappointed" that UPS intends to cancel the A380F order. "We respect the airline's decision, and this is consistent with the agreement we reached last week."

It also leaves UPS with one less option for its planned expansion into the Asian cargo market. UPS currently flies a mix of converted MD-11s and 747-400s on its long-haul routes, and plans to add 25 more planes between the two types over the next two years. Neither of those planes offer the capacity of an A380-sized freighter, though.

FMI: www.airbus.com, www.ups.com