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Why UPS Cancelled Its Cargo Airbus A380 Order

Once upon a time, Airbus had taken orders for a freighter variant of its A380 superjumbo. Some of these orders came from global shipping giant UPS but were eventually canceled in 2007. Let’s take a look at why UPS eventually lost interest in operating the A380 as a cargo jet. ( Más...

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Billy Koskie 5
I gather the conversion cost would be prohibitive even now despite how relatively cheap A380s are going to become on the used aircraft market.
sparkie624 2
They would have to do major overall to the passenger Floorboard to even think about loading anykind of containers, and the structure to support the fuselage would be very heavy, costly, and time consuming.... To do that the wings would have to come off and the fuselage placed in a Fuselage Rack to support it and then it would still be incredibly tricky! and Costly!
Shenghao Han 5
Contrary to Airbus's problem, Boeing can't get enough 747-8 passenger version orders.
In the end cargo usually run out of mass carrying capacity before run out of volume. And A380 really needed considerable redesign to support for a freighter version, while 747 was designed with freighter conversation in mind (back them Boeing was developing 2707)
stratofan 2
The worst kept secret in the industry, is that the break even point for the A380 is far higher than that for a 747. Airbus gambled, and lost that passengers would want to be shoehorned into a 555 seat cabin. Sir Richard Branson had a novel idea with his wanting to put a hot tub or gym on the lower deck. I agree with many, that the 747 was the sweet spot in size, and dual purpose in design. Just like ocean liners, you can build too big.

