Page 81 - World Airnews News July 2020 Edition

COLUMN

THERE COULD BE A FUTURE

FOR THE A380

A330 P2F programme,” a spokesman said.

tem for its 7-Series passenger aircraft, said “If we see sufficient customer interest

it is important to respect areas of some of

he conventional wisdom is there is in an A380 P2F we would investigate this

Tno future for the Airbus A380 aft er its aircraft - notably at the far forward and possibility further. On top of that, we are

aft end of the cabins - which are load-lim-

some front-line carriers have removed the ited. proposing temporary cargo adaptation for

airplane from their fleets. Lateral symmetrical loading is necessary A380 like it has been done for A330/A350

Singapore Airlines retired the first of five for weight imbalance. This is most import- in the post-COVID context and are support-

A380s a few years ago as 10-12 year leases ant on twin-aisle aircraft and less so on ing the return to service.”

expired. Only one found a new home, with 737s and 757s. A380 USES
ACMI operator HiFly. Others went to the It is also necessary load cargo properly The A380 is not as versatile as the Boeing

scrap heap. to avoid sitting the airplane on its tail, a

The virus crisis prompted several airlines decades-long procedure. 747-400F or Boeing 777-200F. But FedEx
or UPS might find use for the A380 P2PF

to ground entire A380 fleets - perhaps concept if the airplane is cheap enough to
permanently. Emirates Airline, with 115 in BACK TO THE PAST acquire. Both ordered the pure-freighter
operation before COVID-19 essentially shut But today’s Passenger-to-Pax Freighters A380 when the programme was launched.

down world travel, said it would ground (P2PF) configuration is only a temporary Both cancelled their orders when the

a big portion of its A380s. It took about a measure. programme ran into industrial delays.
week before President Tim Clark said even- If there is to be a future secondary life for
tually these will return to service. the A380, it doesn’t lie in a full-fledged P2F Alibaba, the Chinese equivalent on Amazon,

The A380 doesn’t make a good belly conversion. The cost, underlying design and could be a target customer, for example.
freighter airplane, like the Boeing 747. The logistical challenge are huge. The current market value for a 10-year

lower cargo hold isn’t spacious. The elab- A solution may follow the concept of to- old A380 is (US) $73.07m and lease rate is

orate landing gear takes space away from day’s conversions. A permanent solution for (US) $555/mo, estimates the appraisal firm

cargo. The upper deck is positioned a few the A380 may lie in going back to the past. ISHKA. A five-year-old model CMV is (US)

inches too high to accommodate common $117.15m and the monthly lease rate is (US)
Airborne Express was one of the early

containers. Loading cargo onto the upper small package freight companies, an early $847.000 (half-life assumptions).

deck is a logistical challenge. competitor to what was then named Fed- Loading would require a platform to

Yet there is a P2F (passenger to freighter) eral Express. While FedEx relied mainly on reach the upper deck passenger door -
option that is feasible and affordable. And Boeing 727-100s converted from passen- perhaps something akin to the structures

it is being explored. ger to cargo airplanes with a main-deck alongside rockets (though hardly as tall), or
a docking station of some kind.

COVID SETS EXAMPLE door installed, Airborne used passenger Doric Aviation manages the leases on 17

Response to the COVID crisis prompted airplanes in their original design. Special- A380s, most with Emirate Airline. It also
ised pallets were loaded through the No. 1
several airlines across the globe to convert passenger door. Rollers allowed the small has the ex-Singapore airplane leased to
passenger airplanes to cargo-capable pallets to move to the rear of the airplane. ACMI operator HiFly.
airplanes on the main deck. Airborne’s fleet over the years included Sibylle Pähler, managing director with

In some cases, this involved covering pas- the NAMC YS-11 turboprop, Sud Aviation the lessor, said HiFly converted the main

senger seats with protective plastic or similar Caravelle, Douglas DC-8 and DC-9 and Boe- deck to freight configuration as others have
material and loading boxes into the seats. ing 767-200. In each case, cargo was loaded done. The upper deck is not being used.
In other cases, seats were removed. through the passenger door. HiFly operated the planes from Portugal to
Boxes were stacked along the cabin. The The A380, with doors twice as wide the Dominican Republic and China.

floors weren’t beefed up, but empty pallets as a DC-8 and wider than a 767, offers Converting to an Airborne Express-style

were often installed to serve as cargo net more flexibility for larger pallets and, of freighter is not something Doric is pursuing.

fixtures. The pallets are then fixed to the course, more cargo. Airbus said a Passen- “It’s a remote option,” Pahler said. “It’s

seat tracks. ger-to-Freighter conversion of the A380 not something you can assume on a day-to-

There are currently about 1,000 pas- would be technically feasible. day basis. It’s strictly opportunistic.”
senger airliners converted by these “In a post-COVID environment, we anticipate Even HiFly doesn’t expect this will be a

methods, according to Precision Con- plentiful availability of feed stock for existing model that can be pursued, she said, at

versions. About 300 of these are Boeing conversion programmes, including the EFW least not now. It may be in the next 10-12
777-200ERs/300ERs. months.
This method omits the high cost of Pahler said Doric asked Airbus about
adding a main deck cargo door. It also a full P2F conversion, but the cost was

omits the need to beef up the floors, prohibitive. A pure P2F conversion

since in this crisis; cargo is lighter wasn’t pursued for a mixture of techni-
than the usual main-deck freight cal and cost issues. Q
shipments.
Pallets or roller systems like those Article courtesy: https://leehamnews.

in use by FedEx on ATRs may be used. com/author/scotthamilton/

Boeing, which is developing a sys-
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