Airbus u-turns on its Beluga fleet goal
Airbus has suspended all flying by its new heavylift airline, Airbus Beluga Transport (AiBT), and ...
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The sudden demise of Airbus’s relatively short-lived cargo airline specialising in outsize shipments, Airbus Beluga Transport (AiBT), has raised questions about the solidity of its business plan.
Airbus says AIBT was created, in January 2022, “to explore the oversize transportation market by operating the BelugaST aircraft via its own Air Operator Certificate (AOC)”.
The pre-launch hype focused on the new airline plugging the huge capacity gap in the heavylift and large volume market as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, which saw the withdrawal of Russian-owned AN-124s amid sanctions.
Responding to questions from The Loadstar, an Airbus spokesperson confirmed that “all flights operated by AiBT’s (four-strong) BelugaST fleet are suspended as of now”.
It added: “Please note that AiBT is not to be mixed up with Airbus Transport International (ATI), which is a different Airbus entity operating a fleet of BelugaXL (based on the A330-200) under its AOC to transport aircraft parts between Airbus manufacturing sites.”
The spokesperson said it was standard governance for Airbus to frequently review the business performance of an affiliate, together with the management, address structural losses, propose alternative solutions, and take the necessary decision to protect its employees and assets, while also remaining transparent towards its customers.
“Overall air freight demand is still high, as disclosed in our 2024 Global Market Forecast for the next 20 years. We’ve seen some activities that have shifted to sea transport though. Overall, the cargo market development is not the reason for AiBT to close its business as operational issues were the biggest challenge instead.”
The spokesperson added: “The BelugaST is a special freighter with a main cargo deck being quite high for outsized cargo payloads. In terms of ground operation, a mission with the BelugaST requires specific handling procedures involving a dedicated trained crew and a tailored jig to master the loading and unloading of shipments.”
In a Linkedin post last week, Reza Fazlollahi, AiBT’s head of sales & contract, said it was “with deep sadness that we were informed of the unexpected closure of our company”.
“I was fortunate to be one of the first to participate in the creation of this magnificent adventure, which led to the creation of an airline operating an incredible aircraft with unique characteristics. Part of me will continue to believe that the Beluga will one day come back even stronger thanks to all these lessons learned.”
Back in September 2022, Mr Fazlollahi remarked that the average annual number of flights (operated by AIBT) would increase gradually to reach more than 150 from 2025. However, in his Linkedin post he did not elaborate on the reasons for AiBT’s sudden demise and why the business plan had gone so badly wrong.
The Airbus spokesperson would not be drawn on the number of flights AiBT had been operating during its relatively brief tenure in service but provided further insight of where the airline’s difficulties lay.
“AiBT was operating as a charter business, hence there was no regular weekly flight schedule to a predefined cargo network of destinations. Instead, individually-organised missions to cater for the respective customer’s needs (ie, each mission consisted of several flights depending on routing for the chosen destination) have been performed from 2022-2024.
“Cargo transport by air is chosen by customers requiring a very fast solution to get a shipment from its origin to the desired destination. With the BelugaST, additional certification requirements applied for payload and the process of loading and unloading were taking longer.”
Chapman Freeborn is thought to have been the broker for the Beluga service.
One source told The Loadstar when the new business was announced that only Airbus would be able to operate the Belugas, so it is unlikely that Airbus would outsource the operation.
“The way they’re certified, it’s quite hard for any other operator to operate them, whereas because Airbus runs tests on them, it can create a structure that can operate these aeroplanes quite easily.”
All of AiBT’s 75 employees have been informed of the decision taken and will be supported to find a new job opportunity within Airbus or on the overall job market, the spokesperson added. “We are committed to providing assistance for each affected employee.”
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