Airbus intends to play a "more aggressive" role in the air freight market, chief executive Guillaume Faury has signalled.
During a first-quarter results briefing on 29 April, Faury said the European airframer had been "weak on the freight market segment in the past, in particular on our widebodies". He adds: "We don't like the idea to remain weak on that segment in the future. So indeed we will be more aggressive. And we think we have the products to be able to be more aggressive in the future." Airbus had some success in the past with the production of the A300-600's freighter variant and passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversions of A300s and A310s. The A330-200F is the manufacturer's sole line-built freighter. But since the twinjet's service entry in 2010, Airbus has delivered only 38, and there are no outstanding orders. A P2F conversion programme for A330-200/300s is being offered by ST Engineering’s aerospace division through German modification centre Elbe Flugzeugwerke, in which Airbus holds a minority shareholding. EFW delivered the first A330 P2F freighter in 2017 and has since converted several more. Several operators have used A330s and A350s for cargo-only flights amid the pandemic. Some removed seats to increase cargo capacity. However, this is seen as a temporary arrangement in the current environment. Purpose-built and conversion freighters usually have reinforced floors and large cargo doors to optimise deployment for the air freight market . Airbus's plans for its future offering in the widebody freight segment are "not defined today" says Faury, but he adds: "We are looking the segment very seriously today, and we want to play a role moving forward. "It's not healthy to have only one player exclusive in the market that is actually very significant and has been resisting well in the pandemic. So we want to bring our contribution to that market segment." Boeing offers freighters versions of the 767-300, 777-200 and 747-8, and P2F conversion programmes for the 737-800 and 767-300, its website indicates. While production of the last A380s is still under way, the A350 and A330 are Airbus's sole widebodies available for order.

An Air India flight from Sydney to Delhi was forced to return empty on Monday after a crew member tested positive. While the entire crew had tested negative in Delhi before departing for Sydney, one member tested positive upon arrival in Australia. Australia has banned all travel to and from India will effect from Tuesday. According to Times of India, the incident occurred on an Air India flight AI302 on Saturday, 24th April. As required, all passengers and crew were required to take a pre-departure test in Delhi before flying to Sydney. All crew tested negative and were allowed to operate the 12-hour journey to Australia. Upon arrival in Sydney, all crew members were required to take another COVID-19 test. In this test, one crew member (a cabin crew) was found positive and was immediately isolated. Under Australian rules, no passengers were allowed to fly on the return leg due to the risk of other crew being infected too. A change of crew is needed to operate the fresh leg. However, Air India opted to fly the 787 back without passengers, carrying cargo and important medical freight instead. Considering the dire health crisis in India, foreign medical aid is proving to be invaluable now. Air India flight AI1302 returned to Delhi at 05:40 AM local time on Tuesday morning. Both legs were flown by a 256-seat Boeing 787-8, registered VT-NAA. Just one day after this incident, Australia announced that it was banning all travel from India from 27th April until at least May 15th.

Boeing is working hard to fix the issues with its 787 Dreamliner, and says that the process of undertaking the rework is getting more efficient every day. With this, the planemaker says that it intends to deliver the majority of the 100 aircraft in its inventory before the end of the year. But with COVID-induced border restrictions causing logistical problems, is this a realistic target? The 787 Dreamliner has been something of a thorn in the side of planemaker Boeing, particularly in recent months. The problems with the fit and finish with its fuselage joins have seen deliveries halted, something Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun described during the planemaker’s earnings call today as “nagging problems.” However, Boeing has worked hard to get these issues fixed once and for all. With deliveries restarted last month, the Dreamliner output is back online. Speaking at today’s earnings call, Calhoun set out his ambitions for the stored inventory of 787 Dreamliners. He said,“We have delivered a total of nine 787s since restarting deliveries last month with potentially a couple more by the end of this week. What we know today is that we still expect to deliver the majority of the 787 aircraft currently in inventory by the end of the year.” The stored inventory of 787s is not insubstantial. Boeing estimates that around 100 aircraft are awaiting delivery to customers. While that’s nothing like the number of 737 MAX the manufacturer is working on getting out of the door, it still represents a substantial backlog.