Aircraft

US-based cargo operator United Parcel Service (UPS) is reportedly on the verge of cancelling its order for 10 Airbus A380 freighters, marking the loss of Airbus’s final customer for the cargo version.

UPS is expected to make its cancellation decision public in the next week, according to a report in French business daily Les Echos which does not cite sources.

Fellow US freight giant FedEx Express cancelled its order for 10 A380s last November, opting instead to take 15 Boeing 777 freighters. In December US-based lessor International Lease Finance (ILFC) followed suit, deferring its order and switching its five freighters to passenger aircraft.

Speaking two days ago in Paris as the presentation of its 2006 orders, Airbus officials said its A380 freighter programme is continuing to run at full pace while it awaits a decision from UPS on whether it will retain its order.

“At the moment we’re going gangbusters on the freighter,” said Airbus executive vice-president of programmes Tom Williams. Construction of components and subsections of the first aircraft is well under way, and final assembly is due to begin at the end of next year.

Williams adds that if UPS were to drop its A380F order, the programme’s pace will be slowed. Airbus would continue with the construction of sections for the first aircraft “although not necessarily final assembly”, as the freighter’s structure feeds into proposed new passenger variants such as the extended range -800R and -900 stretch.