Airbus aims A350 Freighters in the skies within 2025

Airbus is actively pitching a freighter variant of the A350 to cargo operators, and would launch the new production freighter program.

Courtesy: http://airway1.com

In recent months, sales executives for the company, based in Toulouse, France, have approached cargo operators to gauge interest in a widebody freighter that would compete in a market currently dominated by Boeing. While Airbus has long been evaluating the launch of a freighter program based on the A330-900, the successor to the A330-300, the factory-built A350 freighter may be newly prioritized.

The Airbus would represent the company’s first move into factory-built production freighters in the large widebody segment since its unsuccessful attempt almost two decades ago to establish an A380 freighter program. The large widebody segment is commonly defined as consisting of aircraft able to ferry payloads of more than 80 tonnes. The company currently builds two passenger variants of the A350: the -900 and the larger A350-1000.

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Although Airbus could build either or both variants as a freighter, the larger A350-1000 is the likelier option, for its greater volumetric capacity. Estimated technical specifications position the 95-tonne payload A350-1000F as an alternative to the 777-200F and the 747-8F, Boeing’s active large widebody freighter programs.

For more information visit: http://airbus.com

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