Market talk: turning the A380 into a cargo-only aircraft could be a huge mistake

10/07/2020

There was much noise in the press this week about HiFly adapting an A380 to become a cargo-only aircraft.

Videos of the conversion process were released and HiFly, a charter specialist, proudly said the A380 offered “the largest volume for cargo transport among all the passenger aircraft used for cargo”, making it “a unique product for the transport of cargo, when availability of freighters is not enough to cover the market needs”.

It is certainly unique. And the largest passenger aircraft. But ...

Comment on this article

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Marcelo Ricciardulli
July 12, 2020 at 4:05 am
Greetings to all the community. A couple of weeks ago I was wondering the same. It seems this conversion came too late. The peak of the PPE shipments (volumes and rates) are going downhill, and an investment like this, in this type of aircraft, seems to be a waste of money (intersting to know how much it was). However, going deeper in the analysis, I identify the following expected facts in the near future, that could make use of this aircraft:
– Until the vaccine for the COVID is launched, the virus will still be with us, so demand for PPE will still be active
– We are seeing these days an increase (or second wave) of the infection rate, which will keep the PPE shipments flowing
– Once the vaccine is approved, I foresee a MASSIVE demand of air freight, for worldwide distribution. The challenge here for this A380 (as well as for any other pax-to-cargo aircraft), would be the cool-chain maintenance capabilities. Hard to think in any ULD suitable to go through the aircraft narrow doors.

All in all, it would be interesting to have an official word from Hi-Fly on the strategy or expectations out of this important step they have just taken.

Best regards. Marcelo

Log in to Reply