Airbus postpones rollout of A350 freighter until late 2027

Airbus on Thursday said it is pushing back the commercial release of the all-new A350 freighter until the second half of 2027 because of ongoing production challenges at supplier Spirit AeroSystems.

The news puts further pressure on capacity for large freighter aircraft later this decade as a significant portion of the global fleet reaches retirement age.

Problems producing a fuselage section at Wichita, Kansas-based Spirit AeroSystems have slowed the manufacturing ramp-up of the passenger version of the A350 and forced Airbus to delay the entry into service of the A350, which was scheduled for 2026 after completing final development and testing. Airbus is striving to increase build rates for the A350 passenger type above the current six per month.

Airbus has logged 60 orders from 10 airlines and lessors so far for the all-new A350, including a deal for five units from Taiwan’s Starlux that has not been fully finalized. FreightWaves reported in November that Etihad Airways plans to purchase three additional A350s and is negotiating final terms with Airbus.

The A350 freighter is impacted more by Spirit’s troubles than the passenger variant because of extra development work beyond normal production, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said during a press conference streamed online. He said other undisclosed factors are also contributing to the launch delay of the widebody cargo jet.

Spirit AeroSystems has struggled financially since the pandemic and is being reacquired by Boeing, with Airbus buying the portion of the company that supports it, to keep it afloat. Those transactions are expected to close this year.

“Spirit is clearly a bottleneck because they’re not able to ramp up the A350 and A220 [programs],” Faury said. “Our focus in the next three years is to spend on capex to bring Spirit in the position that they can support the trajectory that we have in our plans for the A220 and A350.”

Airbus had previously confirmed that supplies to Airbus of A350 fuselage parts from a Spirit plant in North Carolina were running behind schedule.

The lack of future replacements for aging widebody freighters is raising concerns that the air cargo industry may not be able to keep up with international shipping demand. Boeing faces delays of its own for the next-generation 777-8 freighter, which won’t be ready for commercial use until 2028, and intends to stop making the 767 and 777 freighters at the end of 2027. Meanwhile, passenger-to-freighter conversion programs for the Boeing 777 face certification delays, while existing conversion programs are behind schedule because of supply chain problems, including limited availability of skilled technicians. On top of that, a work backlog related to the recall of Pratt & Whitney CFM engines to fix a manufacturing defect has delayed delivery of new and converted freighters to airlines. 

About 650 widebody freighters are in service today, and nearly 20% are older than 20 years, according to Michael Steen, the CEO of Atlas Air. About half of the widebody freighter fleet will reach retirement age in the next three to five years, according to Boeing. Airlines are expected to soon phase out these aircraft because of the high cost of maintenance and fuel consumption, and lower reliability. 

Boeing recently forecast air cargo volumes will grow at a compound annual rate of 4% over the next 20 years. Interest in factory-built cargo jets and passenger-to-freighter conversions is rising because dedicated freighters give businesses greater flexibility and schedule reliability over shipping goods via passenger aircraft. Air cargo demand increased 12% in 2024 as the industry recovered from a steep downturn.

The A350F, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines, can carry a payload of up to 120 tons and can fly up to 4,700 nautical miles. It will feature the industry’s largest main deck cargo door, designed to ease loading of shipping containers and nonstandard pieces of freight. The large cargo door offers the option of using 20-foot shipping containers, something that is rarely, if ever, done with traditional side-loading aircraft, said Crawford Hamilton, head of freighter marketing at Airbus, in an interview last March with STAT Media Group. More than 70% of the airframe is made of advanced materials. Airbus claims the lighter airframe and efficient Rolls Royce engines produce a 20% advantage in fuel burn and carbon dioxide emissions over the legacy Boeing 777 currently in production, as well as the older Boeing 747-400.

Trade war

Faury said Airbus is reviewing scenarios for adapting to potential U.S. tariffs threatened by President Trump against Europe, which would increase prices for U.S. airlines. The airline hopes the U.S. administration takes into consideration that Airbus does a significant amount of development, assembly, and purchasing in the United States and that the trans-Atlantic aerospace industry is very integrated.. 

“But we have a strong demand outside of the U.S. and a lot of production capabilities in Europe and outside Europe that we could use to serve export customers,” he said.

Airbus delivered 766 commercial aircraft last year. Revenues increased 6% year over year to 69.2 billion euros ($48.7 billion), and the company had a pretax profit of $3.8 billion.

Click here for more FreightWaves stories by Eric Kulisch.

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