AIRBUS A330-F

As with many things, there is much more to this story than meets the eye. During the Farnborough Air Show, we learned quite a bit about the back story of this. There is an underlying dispute between Airbus and Flyington, with Airbus threatening to cancel the Flyington order and keeping the progress payments made to date. Flyington threatened to sue, tying the issue to the tanker.
There is much more intrigue involved in the tanker tie-in alleged by Flyington, but what we learned about this was from another reporter (not Defense News) and we have to honor his efforts on this story, so we can’t go into it.
The Flyington order has been deferred to about 2014, another A330F customer tells us, who was offered the Flyington positions. This deferral was at Flyington’s request.
Six months ago, at the depth of the world cargo recession, we were told Flyington wanted to either sell its positions or cancel them. We emailed Flyington at the time but got no response.
The airline is a start-up and as we have seen, the airlines in India are under financial stress at the moment

Airbus is introducing a variable-weight capability for its A330-200 freighter, to provide the type's customers with the ability to transport a greater payload over certain routes.
The dynamic payload-range mode is to be unveiled formally by the airframer this week after it obtained approval to offer the option.
It will enables the twinjet to increase revenue payload by up to 2.5t over a specific range, around 3,200-4,000nm (5,930-7,400km), by "tuning" the zero-fuel weight over a 5t range.

Airbus says the option effectively smooths the differential between the payload-range curves for the type over these distances.
Normally the aircraft would be available configured in "range mode" - known as weight variant WV00 - or in "payload mode", variant WV01.
The dynamic mode, designated WV02, provides for a variable zero-fuel weight of 173-178t.
This variable zero-fuel weight depends on the actual take-off weight required and translates into a variable structural payload of 65-70t, the extremes of the other two variants.
In this dynamic mode the A330-200F has a maximum take-off weight of 233t.
Airbus says the greatest payload improvement, 2.5t, is achieved on a sector of 3,650nm.
"It allows better flexibility and payload optimisation on transatlantic and route between Asia, India and the Middle East to Europe," it adds.
Operators could potentially achieve a 1.1t gain on Brussels-New York, the airframer claims, or 1.8t on services between Singapore and Sydney.
The decision to offer the optional feature follows European Aviation Safety Agency certification of the new capability in January.
Airbus says the dynamic payload-range mode will give carriers the opportunity to "utilise the aircraft's maximum payload potential over a wider range of routes than previously".

Airbus has decided to develop a passenger-to-freighter conversion of the A330 twinjet, after signing an agreement which will see Singapore's ST Aerospace lead the engineering development and Germany's EADS EFW carry out conversions.

The memorandum of understanding was signed at the Singapore Airshow between the three partners, which should see the first converted aircraft enter service in 2016.

The longer, but shorter range A330-300P2F will lead the programme, with the shorter, longer range -200P2F due to follow a year later.

Airbus said that EFW will subsequently lead the overall programme during the industrial phase and undertake "most of the conversions" at its Dresden facility. The deal will see EFW become the European centre for ST Aerospace's maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services.


© Airbus

EADS-EFW chief executive Andreas Sperl declined to reveal the list price for the aircraft, but said the receipt of authority to offer enables "discussions to begin with potential launch customers".

Although Qatar Airways has been extremely vocal in its calls for Airbus to launch the A330P2F programme, Sperl declined to comment on whether the airline was a prime target to be launch customer.

He said that once the programme is up and running, Dresden would be capable of converting 15-18 A330s a year.

The converted aircraft will be offered alongside the new-build A330-200F, which has been slow to find its market niche with orders for just 69 aircraft so far.

"We see a market for 400 new-build aircraft and 900 conversions over the next 20 years," said Airbus president and chief executive Tom Enders. "We forecast that almost all the demand for cargo aircraft comes in this mid-size category."

The airframer's chief operating officer for customers, John Leahy, dismissed suggestions that the introduction of the P2F will hurt the prospects for the new-build freighter.

"I don't see that as an issue, I think it's complementary," he said. "With the A300-600F, the conversion helped us with new-build sales."

Although the P2F version will have the same large forward cargo door as the A330-200F, it will tackle the A330's nose-down angle on the ground in a different way, said Sperl.

The -200F has a repositioned nosegear leg accommodated in an external blister fairing to raise the nose and level the cabin floor. The P2F version will retain the passenger aircraft's geometry and incorporate a powered cargo loading system to enable pallets to be moved "uphill" on the main cargo deck.