UPS to Cancel Order for 10 Airbus A380 Freighters (Update1)
By Mary Schlangenstein
March 2 (Bloomberg) -- United Parcel Service Inc., the last customer for the Airbus SAS A380 freighter, said it would cancel its $2.8 billion order for 10 of the superjumbo jets later this year.
The move follows Airbus's decision yesterday to indefinitely delay the A380 cargo model and focus on the passenger version. Airbus's action convinced UPS the planemaker couldn't meet a revised delivery schedule it set last week, Mark Giuffre, a UPS spokesman, said today in an interview.
UPS, the world's largest package shipper, wanted the A380 to maximize the amount of cargo on each plane into China and other Asian countries where flights are limited. The triple- decker freighter has 2.4 times the lift capacity of a Boeing Co. 747.
``UPS has built one of the largest airlines in the world in order to ensure reliable service to our customers,'' David Abney, president of UPS Airline, said in a statement. ``We're confident we have the resources to continue to do so in the future.''
UPS, based in Atlanta, declined to comment on whether it would order other planes to provide future capacity left open by the pending A380 cancellation. Toulouse, France-based Airbus was at least two years behind schedule in deliveries of the A380 freighter.
A U.S. spokeswoman for Airbus in Herndon, Virginia, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.