The United Parcel Service(UPS), is expected to cancel the only remaining order for the cargo version of the A380 superjumbo jet. As the Washington Post reports, rumors are that they will cancel the ten plane order sometime next week. In October, UPS began to review its purchase in light of the third delivery delay on the A380 and apparently they have lost faith. UPS’s competition, FedEx, already canceled its ten A380s due to the delays, and ordered Boeing’s 777 instead.
Airbus took no orders for cargo freighter models this year, compared to the eight-one that Boeing received. In July, Airbus will deliver the last of its only cargo model, the A300/310, a thirty-five year old design. The company doesn’t plan to stop development on the freighter version of the 380, only slow it, and also plans to build a cargo version of the immensely popular A330-200.
To avoid total doom and gloom…we do have hope for Airbus and are sure it will pull itself out of the hole it has gotten into. As one of our readers reminded us…it is great dreams and projects like the A380 that inspire us and inflame our imagination…on the other hand, Titanic was such a project.