First cancellation for A380 as FedEx orders Boeing 777 Freighters,

Flight Internation ^ | November 7, 2006 | Justin Wastnage

[Paul Ross]

First cancellation for A380 as FedEx orders Boeing 777 Freighters, ditching Airbus A380F

Flight International 11/07/2006
Author: Justin Wastnage

FedEx Express has placed an order for up to 30 Boeing 777 Freighters, replacing its initial order for 10 Airbus A380s.

The deal, which consists of 15 firm orders and 15 options, will see the first aircraft join the cargo operator's fleet in 2009.

"We're looking forward to working with FedEx on this new chapter in our relationship," says Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president of sales for the Americas Ray Conner in a statement. "The 777F will have unmatched capacity for a twin-engine freighter and is a perfect complement to the existing FedEx fleet of aircraft."

Financial details are not being disclosed, but estimates place the value at around $3.5 billion.

The order represents the first casualty of the Airbus A380 delay, with FedEx scrapping its order for 10 of the type. "FedEx has made significant investments in our network to meet customers' needs and fulfill our business objectives,'" says FedEx chief executive Fred Smith.

Airbus says it "regrets the decision made by FedEx" but adds that the manufacturer "understands" the express carrier's capacity requirements.

[Paul Ross]

Timberrrrrrrrr! Look out below.....

[CedarDave]

France gets Kerry and the Ditsy Chix (we wish) and the US gets the jobs.
HOORAY!!

[JRios1968]

ping!

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

FedEx needs planes on the ramp, not vaporware.

One thing that's got to have them cheesed off is that they spent a lot of money to accomodate the A380 based on Airbus actually meeting its delivery dates. Now they have to go to Boeing and hope that Boeing's backlog of orders isn't too severe.

[RRomo]

So the French are not only morally bankrupt... they are financially too? Breaks my heart! ;)

Airbus would be closing their doors if it were not for the Arabs willing to pay Airbus's bills/suppliers. The Arabs are willing to go to great lengths to have the biggest or latest greatest... the French better send them a nice CHRISTmas gift.

[smonk]

first the guilty verdict, and now this. not a good day for airbust. it remains to be seen if this cancellation is merely the first domino.

[leakinInTheBlueSea]

probably has something to do with the wake constraints as well... fedex has a quick turnaround operation at night which benefits from getting all the aircraft into the sorting facility in the shortest time possible... the increased wake spacing required for aircraft following A380s is certainly a hit to the operations of cargo haulers and airlines alike. Airbus spins this by saying the A380 has no constraints as a trailing aircraft, presumably in a claim that the overall arrival rate would not be impacted, biut this is just plain false... the A380s competition (747, 777) also have no restictions trailing 'large' and 'light' aircraft and only add 1 nm for trailing other heavy aircraft. An operator with a mixed fleet will absolutely lose runway throughput ( in terms of number of operations per time) because of the increased separation criteria for trailing aircraft. Some of this is offset by the increased payload capability of the A380, but it IS another nibble into the intially perceived benefit of operating this aircraft... coupled with the lower than expected performance and the delayed delivery, it is looking more and more like a dog. Airbus is now saying they need to sell close to 500 of these beasts to break even. ouch.

[Jorge]

I suspect this is only the beginning.

We will probably see more A380 cancellations.

[beethovenfan]

AIRBUST

[Dark Wing]

ping

[Chode]

and so it begins...

[Chode]

airpig ping...

[Churchillspirit]

Wonder where they will be built.

Lots of Boeing plants around my area - So. Cal.

[Pukin Dog]

My comments are on the earlier thread, thanks.

[Puckster]

What isn't reported much is the extensive infrastructure changes at airports to the jet-ways to accommodate the A380.

[RayChuang88]

My guess is that Airbus will split off its really profitable A320 Family operations into a separate company. Unlike the fiascos with their widebody planes, the A320 Family has proven to be pretty reliable (after they corrected a few initial problems), well-liked by passengers, and is sized so many airlines want them.

[Paleo Conservative]

What isn't reported much is the extensive infrastructure changes at airports to the jet-ways to accommodate the A380.

Freighters don't need jetways.

[Paul Ross]

Now they have to go to Boeing and hope that Boeing's backlog of orders isn't too severe.

Should be plenty of capacity for 777 production. But still, yeah they'll be at the end of the que...

[Paul Ross]

...well-liked by passengers,

I didn't and don't like them particularly. Particularly the propensity to crash (fortunately reduced of late)..and then for AirBus to cover up the facts:

the A320 had several highly publicized crashes. The most notorious occurred on June 26, 1988, when an Air France A320 crashed during an airshow in Habsheim, France killing three passengers onboard. While the crash was officially blamed on pilot error, the investigation left numerous unanswered questions. Switzerland 's Institute of Police Forensic Evidence and Criminology later determined that the plane's flight data recorder had been substituted after the crash, throwing the entire investigation into doubt.

[RayChuang88]

Paul,

I think at the time the A320's fly-by-wire system was a major unknown given that nobody tried to implement FBW on such a big plane. It took Airbus quite a while to finally stamp out the bugs on the system to make it decently reliable.