And aside from the now discontinued A300-600 freighter newbuild programme, most of Airbus’ freighter offerings were via the conversion route. But this will all soon be history once Airbus’ new A330-200F rolls off the production linein Toulouse, France later this year.
Eyeing what it says is an important unfulfilled spot in the freighter market, Airbus has pinned its hopes on its new mid-sized, long range freighter. With up to a 69 tonne payload and a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of 233 tonnes, the A330F is aimed at serving networks similar to that operated currently by B747s.
At nearly the same range but with nearly a 40 per cent smaller payload the freighter is ideal for the changing air cargo landscape, the airframe maker argues. It is simply going to be a game changing aircraft suggest Airbus executives.
Based on the popular A330 passenger aircraft, the freighter variant underwent the typical design alterations for its new role, such as structural reinforcement and redesigned front landing gear bay to reduce nose down attitude to facilitate cargo loading/unloading.
“We wanted it to be very common to the A330 passenger plane because we obviously have airlines flying both types at the same time,” said the head of marketing for Airbus’ freighter aircraft,Didier Lenormand.
“So commonality-wise in terms of maintenance and systems that are not specific to cargo, they are the same as on the passenger version,” he added. The 330F is produced on the same production line as the A330/340 passenger planes, although Lenormand declined to say how many freighters are on the line at any given time.
An intended ramp-up in production to a total of 11 aircraft in production was frozen last year he said and “we are in a situation where we are reviewing the various different scenarios and the numbers will be reviewed with this stopping of the ramp-up and change in the number of units, in absolute terms, being produced. So, the split between pax and cargo will be slightly different and affected by this change.”
Airbus now has orders in excess of 80 freighters, from customers including: Aircastle, BOC Aviation, Etihad Airways, Flyington Freighters, Guggenheim Aviation Partners, Intrepid Aviation Group, MatlinPatterson, MNG Airlines and OH, Avion LLC, and ACT Airlines. Overall, Airbus forecasts the mid-size freighter market, between 40 and 80 tonnes of payload, to be in excess of 1,600 aircraft – including both newbuilds and conversions – over the next 20 years.
Delivery delays
Although originally scheduled for delivery in late 2009, the date was shifted by about three months due to what Airbus describes as ‘commercial’ issues.
In late December reports began to circulate highlighting the ripple effect of the ongoing production delays of Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner passenger aircraft – a result of both supply chain issues and the crippling eight-week strike by Boeing machinists.
At the time, Airbus chief operating officer John Leahy, said that the manufacturer had decided to accelerate production of the passenger version of the A330 to meet pent-up demand as carriers could not wait for their 787 deliveries. This, he explained, would mean a postponement in the manufacturing of the cargo variant.
“You can’t call that a delay, it was just an adjustment,” insists Lenormand, adding that it was in a way an indication of slipping interest in the freighter.
“We have had a bit of adjustments back in June last year, it’s been moved by about three months, from very late-2009 to very early-2010. And then that was combined with opportunities to place some additional passenger airplanes in that period of time due to delays in other programmes – not ours!” he said.
Production is on schedule, he says, with section assembly started and a substantial number of lab tests on systems also completed which puts the freighter on track to start its final assembly in early summer of 2009 with the first flight targeted for the 4th quarter of 2009. Launch customer – Indian start-up, Flyington Freighters – is scheduled to take delivery in the first quarter 2010.
Another possible spin-off from the B787 delays according to Lenormand, is a possible widening replacement market for the 330. Delays to the 787 programme will impact the feedstock of the 767 for freighter conversion and because the planes will have to keep flying for another two or three years, some will pass the threshold where conversion can no longer be justified economically based on the airframe’s accumulated flying hours.
Selling points
One of the key selling points of the plane revolve around the fact there is no modern freighter aircraft in this size and with the range of the 330. Currently in the mid-size market there are only used, and rather dated, aircraft like DC10s, or MD11s.
“There is this niche which is currently served by the DC10 which is a 25-30 yearold generation airplane and design. This is a replacement niche and then we see another one where obviously as demand picks up and pressure on fuel will go up again, the DC10 will see their last time of flying.”
He also sees it as a potential replacement for the MD11, although at around 90 tonnes of payload its not quite the same league. “The MD11 has a slightly higher payload, but if you take the 330 in payload mode at 69 tonnes you’re not too far away from the MD11, but if you start comparing the economics of the two airplanes, the MD11 is of a similar generation as the B767, so the 330 is a very attractive proposition.”
“There is no direct competitor from the Boeing side,” he says adding that the only one that is close is the B767 but with smaller range and lower payload its not the same market.
“I think that’s the value added of the A330 because its positioned right in the middle of mid-size planes which until now have been the DC10, DC8 and MD11. It’s a huge market and there’s nobody else to compete in that respect,” he said.
Airbus also touts the planes flexibility, based on two modes – payload and range.
While physically the same aircraft, it is designed to take either 69 tonnes of payload over 3,200 nautical miles in payload mode, or 64 tonnes over 4,000 nautical miles in range mode. “You buy one plane that you can adapt to two different missions,” says the marketing head.
“There is an element of flexibility and risk limitation because you can fly according to the loads of your season, your markets, and the route you’re flying. A different combination of design weights to optimize the efficiency of the aircraft. It’s this flexibility that also makes this a great regional aircraft,” he adds.
Carriers in emerging areas like the Middle East are very keen on the plane, he says. “They are very interested to have something which is mid-sized with the range of the B747 to develop their new freight businesses.” He points to Middle East-Africa and China-Middle East-Africa as prime examples of new routes where the 330 would be ideal.
He also sees it as a prime replacement for DC10s being operated domestically in the US, and also as a replacement of various aircraft types being used on the intra-Asia trade.
It’s also an aircraft ideally suited for opening of new routes, he says, which would be far more risky going in with a 100+ tonne aircraft like the 130 tonne B747-8 freighter.
There is an opportunity with the A330 to fly routes where the B747 is too big or where increased frequencies – in the case of the supply chain business for example – would enable carriers to attract higher yield cargo.
And because of the A330’s range and payload capabilities, it’s also suited for catering to imbalanced markets, he adds.
“Take for example China, a lot of exports from China but small loads with low yield on the way back. Th e economics of the return trip are better with the 330 than compared with larger aircraft where you have to discount more heavily on the way back in order to fill it with a minimum load to get the business case for covering fuel and crew cost. This is the sort of market we see the A330 aircraft fitting into.”
An A330-200F has 15 per cent lower direct operating cost per RTK than a B747-400ERF, according to Lenormand.
“The 330 is an opportunity for airlines to think their network a bit differently compared to what they used to do in the past where obviously with a distance of 4,000 nautical miles the only aircraft available was the 747. The 330 basically gives those guys the opportunity to fly differently.”
“There is an opportunity to think different about the cargo business, to get into a different way of addressing thelong haul market, instead of flying very large units trying to get a scale effect dueto size,” he adds.
This is especially crucial in the current market downturn and for Airbus it is an opportunity to get into some airlines which were very focused on larger aircraft and “get them thinking differently their network.” He declined to identify any specific carriers, but said they were primarily “freight-minded European and Asia carriers”.
More freighters to come
When it comes to Airbus’ involvement in the freighter sector, Lenormand takes issue with the notion that it has not been active in developing freighter products. He points to the fact there are more than 280 A300-600 converted and newbuild freighters currently flying.
“We’re not a small size player in the market – we’ve sold two-thirds more A300-600s than Boeing has sold 767 newbuilds. So I don’t think you can say we’re a small player in the freighter market, but maybe we haven’t been as vocal as the other guys.”
Looking ahead, Lenormand confirms there has been interest in the market for an A330-300 freighter, and added that Airbus is “always looking at alternatives.”
“We have been studying it not as a newbuild aircraft, but as a conversion aircraft because if you recall the A330- 300 first delivered in early 1990s so we are starting to get some of those early aircraft at the right age to envisage conversion.”
The market he’s looking at is the midsized, wide-body freighter markets like the US domestic express market in which the ageing DC10’s need replacements.
Airbus has a view of developing a family of freighters building from the A320/321P2F (passenger to freighter conversion) programme launched at Farnborough up through the A310/300- 600P2F, A330-200F/-300P2F to one day a possible A350F and A380F.
“So we start developing a family of fly-by-wire freighter aircraft like we’ve been developing the fly-by-wire passenger family.” But a large chunk of this will be based on conversions he says. After the latest two additions – the A320P2F and A330F, probably the next to come will be the A330-300P2F, he said.
“Sometime after the combined recovery of traffic and the stabilisation of the delivery streams of the A380 we should have some time to reconsider relaunching the A380 freighter and as we’re always thinking of variance and developments, we have a long term vision of an A350 freighter, but that’s a much longer-term vision, maybe 10 years, but we have some ideas to develop a freighter out of that aircraft, and it would be a competitor to the B777F.
“But the A380F would likely be before the A350 freighter in terms of calendar years,” he said. “But there is no decision taken regarding those two planes,” hehastened to add.
The competition
When asked for his views on Boeing’s product offerings, Lenormand said it was key to look at what is and will be driving the air cargo market. A key driver is density he says.
“Asian volumes are driven by density and density is very much a declining trend which means you’ll need more volume or provide airplanes that give you incremental volume higher than incremental payload. And I think the B747-8F goes in just the opposite direction.
“They’ve provided a stretch 747, but provided only incremental lift and limited incremental volume to this aircraft, so basically the 747 which was designed something like 30 years ago, was designed for a given market which reflected the densities of that time. Those densities were pretty high because there was a lot of machinery and perishables.”
But this has all changed as air cargo is increasingly becoming an integral part of supply chain management where there are a lot of of semiconductor and other high value commodities.
And all these high value products imply a lot of packaging around them, he said. So even something like a PC which is a relatively weighty piece of equipment, once it gets into the box and has all the protection around it, turns into a very bulky thing.
“The -8 is a stretched airplane but it’s not stretched in proportion to optimise this trend towards lower densities – this plane doesn’t go in the right direction. And I would make the same comment for the 777.
“When you look at the balance between density, or at least volume and weight, the density that is optimising the load ability of this airplane is in the range of something like 10.5 to 11 pounds per cubic feet while typical Chinese exports are at around 9.5, so already you can see the mismatch of the aircraft with the market requirements,” he said.
The A330 freighter on the other hand, is optimised for densities between 8.7 and 9.5 pounds per cubic feet, depending on the layout onboard the aircraft, “so obviously we are much closer to the current trend of the densities in the market where basically you’re going to have a very close match between lets say the 64 or 69 tonnes of payload compared to the equivalent volumes based on current market densities.”