Fedex Cancels Airbus A380 Order, Defects to Boeing November 7, 2006
Posted by Andrew in Airbus, Boeing, Fedex.trackback
Fedex, frustrated with delays in the Airbus A380 program, cancelled its order for ten of the aircraft in the freighter configuration early this morning. Citing “significant delays for delivery of A380s” and a need to meet the growing global package demand, the freight carrier elected to purchase the Boeing 777F instead of the much larger Airbus A380 aircraft. In response to the largest blow dealt to the Airbus A380 program, an Airbus spokesman said that “Airbus regrets FedEx’s decision but understand[s] their need to urgently address capacity issues.” Although Dubai-based Emirates has been threatening cancellation in recent months, Fedex is the first major carrier to follow through. Fedex’s cancellation came as a surprise to the aviation industry this morning; United Parcel Service, the main competitor of Fedex was rumored to be considering a cancellation, but such an action was not expected from Memphis based Fedex. The Boeing 777F, scheduled to be first delivered in 2008, is not seen as a replacement for the A380. The Boeing 777F is of comparable size to the MD-11, the backbone of Fedex’s widebody fleet. With MD-11’s becoming more difficult to acquire, many see Fedex’s purchase of triple-sevens as a move to augment an aircraft size that serves the company well. Fedex indicated that the decision to purchase the Boeing 777 freighter variant came as a result of the recently announced delays. The freight company, an early proponent of the Airbus A380 program, noted however that it will continue “to be Airbus’ largest wide-body airplane customer and will add additional new and used Airbus wide-body aircraft to its fleet in the coming years.” Boeing did not comment on the recent deal, however investors rewarded the company by boosting its shares on news of the deal.
Source: Reuters
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Fedex Cancels Airbus A380 Order
Fedex, frustrated with delays in the Airbus A380 program, cancelled its order for fifteen of the aircraft in the freighter configuration early this morning. Citing “significant delays for delivery of A380s” and a need to meet the growing global package…
Ouch did they say why they did this
Interesting. T. Allan McCartor was a big-shot at FedEx long before running the show at Airbus.
Where oh where are they going to land??? Smart move!!
They did it as supply and demand. they need planes now, not in 10years so the 777’s are just a placeholder until the Airbus becomes more readily available.
fedex has been a airbus only fleet… having aircrafts of 2 different companies drastically increases the the spares and mantainance costs.
Fedex currently flies Boeing 757-200 aircraft and is shopping for used ones at the moment
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glad you had this posted. I wanted to get informed on this
I am not sure why the A380 production has been delayed but I suspect poor management of the programme. If this is the case then customers are bound to vote with their feet and go with a company that delivers on time. I don’t blame Fedex for going with two suppliers despite increased costs. I think its called giving yourself a lever when you do a deal with a rival company. They will surely recoup any additional expenditure by getting a good deal from Boeing and then renegotiating with Airbus from a position of strength in the future. Smart move either way.
We here at Boeing had a good laugh over this.
In response: As it has been reported else where, Airbus has been having numerous issues, the largest of which is in relation to poor choice of software use, they designed major parts o their systems using different versions of the same software, and needless to say had issues getting things merged together. (Very simplified explanation)
Fedex decision is a management decision with regards to their strategy. As with regards to Airbus, I will just point out that the Airbus A380 has no technical problem and that is the main point. As Quantas said with regards to their Airbus audit, it is not a problem with the airplane but just a production issue. Fedex can’t wait and they have cancelled their A380 option; that’s their point but I don’t think that other airlines will follow this move.
fed-ex also still has a pretty large # of DC-10s. kthxbai.
Man it is funny how these two companies fight and go back and forth. It is like a reality show in progress…
Thanks for the post!
Thanks,
Justin (Cessna Dude) Renkin