Airbus Beluga Transport To Be Shutdown

Airbus will shut down its Airbus Beluga Transport (ABT) operations less than two years after launching the division.

Following Airbus spokespeople’s comments, reports led by CargoFacts and Flightglobal confirmed that the division would be shut down.

What Is Airbus Beluga Transport

Airbus Beluga Transport was the European planemaker’s answer to keeping its older A330-600ST Beluga jets alive following the arrival of the BelugaXLs.

The XL aircraft replaced the ageing Super Transporters as they were known. However, Airbus felt there was still life for these planes to give to their operation.

As a result, the planemaker launched a special division that would act essentially as a cargo airline rather than an inter-operation aircraft carrying parts for aircraft production.

Airbus said that the Beluga Transport division would look to provide solutions to customers who require the transportation of oversized cargo items that wouldn’t typically work on a regular commercial airplane freighter.

These items would range from helicopters to the transport of aircraft engines, mining requirements and other oversized bits.

This switch in operation marks a departure from what the Belugas are typically known for, which is their flying between Airbus hubs, carrying core wings and parts of upcoming commercial aircraft, speeding up the production process.

The Shutdown

The Airbus Beluga Transport division only launched just over a year ago. Therefore, its upcoming shutdown, which does not have a confirmed timeframe, comes relatively quickly.

Airbus says in a statement that it remains committed to aiding the employees that will be affected, and this division specifically looked to appoint some 70 employees to help with fuel operations.

The BelugaSTs were moved out of service for their primary purpose of transporting commercial aircraft parts between factories because of fleet renewal efforts.

Airbus has now taken delivery of all its BelugaXL aircraft as expected; the XL is the successor to the ST. However, as touched on, Airbus felt that there was still life that could’ve been exhausted from the ST fleet and thus attempted to find ways to meet this.

Airbus Beluga Transport was the planemaker’s answer to meeting the demand it believed was present, and it worked through AOCs and other legalities to get the division off the ground; however, now it’ll shut down.

No reason has been provided by the planemaker publicly as to why the shutdown has occurred, and the company remains tight-lipped about the decision.