By: Albert - 15th April 2001 at 23:43
RE: Doing a dissapearing act?
As printed in this months AIRLINER WORLD Airbus are to build a dedicated A330 freighter witch will more than likely take over for the A300 as the smaller option to the A380 freighter. As a side line if the A380 carries cargo on two decks it will take an interesting piece of equipment to load and unload to top deck.
By: V1 - 6th April 2001 at 15:44
RE: Doing a dissapearing act?
Let us not forget that Airbus developed the A330-200 as a replacement for the A300-600 passenger models, so that is another reason why we will see more freighter variants of the 300 around. Airbus must be pushing to sell the A300F quite hard, head to head with the 767-300F and even the MD-11, which is the current king of the freighters, albiet no longer in production.
By: Albert - 4th April 2001 at 21:18
RE: Doing a dissapearing act?
UPS has ordered 60 A300F4-622R freighters to be delivered between 2003 and 2009. Thy are still taking delivery of A300 ordered in 1998 so they will be still around for many years yet.
By: KabirT - 4th April 2001 at 16:43
RE: Doing a dissapearing act?
FedEx ordered the A300F recently i think.
By: Matilainen - 4th April 2001 at 09:37
RE: Doing a dissapearing act?
A300 is a good freight aircraft. Was it TNT who ordered A300 model freighters few years ago?
By: V1 - 2nd April 2001 at 18:44
RE: Doing a dissapearing act?
The A300 is still a good aircraft, but the appeal it once had with the airlines is disappearing at an alarming rate. The older models, such as the B2 and B4 date back to the seventies and are approaching thirty years of age, the -600 variants seem to have lost out to the 767-300ER, for whatever reason. I prefer the Airbus machine myself, it is a lot more comfortable to fly in. The A300 has done well though, it penetrated markets such as the US (remember the Eastern A300 fleet?) and it’s smaller sibling, the A310, sold around 200 units also.
The 300 and 310 helped Airbus get on it’s feet and paved the way for the larger A330/340 types. The A330 has since become a healthy sales success for an aircraft of it’s size.
The A300 will still be seen in the air for a good few years yet, most old passenger types are being converted to freighters. The A300F is an excellent cargo hauler and offers greater capacity than the 767-300F. Sadly, a few will find their way to the breakers yard, but they have all given their airlines stirling service.
As a final note, the American Airlines A300-600 fleet make a very tidy profit for the carrier on it’s Carribean routes from Miami.
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March 30, 2001 at 2:04 pm