Oliver von Tronchin, head of freighter marketing at Airbus outlines how the A350F positions Airbus to lead in an evolving, emissions-conscious freighter market.
What does the A350F represent for Airbus strategically in the freighter market, especially in the context of ICAO emissions requirements and growing sustainability pressures?
Airbus has played, and continues to play, an active role within the air cargo market as the overall demand for air freight remains high.
The Airbus product portfolio includes P2F conversions, which give former passenger aircraft a new life and purpose as a freighter.
Also, not to be forgotten, with the iconic Beluga aircraft (formerly introduced as Supper Guppy) Airbus created an outsized cargo plane for its own production purposes, which is still successfully in use internally to transport essential aircraft parts between the different Airbus manufacturing sites.
With the new A350F freighter, Airbus enters the large freight market with a state-of-the-art cargo aircraft and – worth highlighting – rounds up the fly-by-wire freighter Airbus Family offering with the A320P2F, A321P2F and A330P2F.
As such, Airbus’ freighter offering is complete, catering for all cargo segments.
In a market environment of aging cargo fleets, the modern A350F freighter will allow operators to meet the demands of a global freight network where a huge variety of goods with special needs are being transported while complying with the ICAO CO2 emission standards coming into effect in 2027.
How has Airbus leveraged the design heritage of the A350 passenger variant to create operational and economic advantages with the A350F for cargo operators?
As a matter of fact, the A350 passenger aircraft is very popular among international carriers and offered us a fantastic proven platform to further build on.
During the design phase, we took our time to study this further at the time of the A350-1000 development and the A350F is based on this variant, even though it is slightly shorter to create the best balance between volume and payload.
The evolved adjustments are inspired by valuable customer feedback, offering us more real insights into cargo operations.
Some of our A350F customers are combination carriers, which have A350 aircraft in their fleet already. These airlines will benefit from commonality, linked to crew training, maintenance, spare parts and tooling needs.
Apart from that, the freighter has the same fuel capability as the passenger aircraft version, however priority is given to the payload, which can be up to 111 tonnes on the A350F.
Thanks to the clean sheet carbon design, the maximum take-off weight is up to 46 tonnes lower compared to the 777-8F.
The A350F boasts a wider and more efficient cargo door than competitors – how does this influence real-world operations and what new types of cargo or missions does this unlock?
The A350F will feature the largest main deck cargo door in the industry with a cut out width of 175 inches, and a clear opening of 170 inches by the time of its entry-into-service.
This extended door size will efficiently ease the loading and unloading of large cargo shipments, i.e. as heavy and valuable machinery, and turning pallets, especially large commercial engine pallets, by 90 degrees.
That means less back-and-forth, less potential damages, and more advantages for clearances, which will result in quicker turnaround times and improved on-time flight schedules.
With the Trent XWB-97 engine and advanced flight deck systems, how does the A350F embody the future of freighter aircraft in terms of performance, reliability, and pilot experience?
There are clear benefits in terms of commonality. Pilots familiar with the A350 passenger version thanks to the respective type rating can be considered for freighter operations as the cockpit and trainings are identical. This gives airlines the chance to offer pilots new career opportunities within their own flight operations environment.
Besides, given the excellent performance of the Rolls-Royce XWB79 engines, which are chosen as an integral part of the A350F, fuel consumption will be between 20-40% less compared to previous generation freighter aircraft on the market, which represents a high percentage of old cargo fleets.
How important is digital integration, such as the enhanced Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) and touchscreen displays, in the future of freighter operations – and how are customers responding to these tools?
The Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) and touchscreen displays on the A350F are the same as for the passenger A350 version. These digital features support pilots with workload management, so pilots who will fly the A350F benefit from these digital tools equally.
What feedback are you hearing from potential and current A350F customers – and how is that shaping Airbus’s roadmap for future freighter developments?
We exchanged a lot with customers and leading cargo operators in the phase of the freighter development.
Since the fast and more expensive transport by air is chosen for urgently needed or highly valuable goods, an efficient operation is key to all players involved in that journey of getting a shipment from A to B. With the extended size of the door, the A350F will ease such loading and unloading processes and thus contribute to more speed and efficiency in operations.
In our globalised world, trade relationships across continents come with a growing demand for stable and tailored transport solutions.
As the A350 passenger version stands out with operational reliability, the A350F will bring customers excellent performance at lower fuel, maintenance and training costs, while connecting economies through the transport of goods around the globe on busy, long-range cargo routes without increasing CO2 emissions.
READ MORE A350F NEWS:
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Airbus secures major A350F and A320neo order from AviLease
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STARLUX Airlines places another order for five A350Fs
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