Air France-KLM has downsized its order with Airbus for the all-new A350 freighter in favor of more passenger aircraft following another delay for the freighter program.
Air France-KLM Group reduced its order from eight to six A350 freighters and converted the reservation for production slots to two A350-900 passenger jets following last month’s announcement that Airbus has postponed the A350 freighter’s entry into service until the second half of 2027, AFKLM spokesman Gerard Roelfzema said in an emailed statement.
Air France-KLM (EUR: AF) operates six cargo jets: three Boeing 747-400 at KLM, one 747-400 at Martinair Cargo and two Boeing 777-200s at Air France.
“Air France-KLM constantly assesses its fleet portfolio to best balance future capital expenditures with commercial and operational efficiency. With this in mind, and in the context of Airbus’s announcement that the Airbus A350F full freighter’s entry-into-service would be delayed, the Group has decided to adjust its order,” the company said.
Three of the A350s will be operated by Air France and three by Martinair. They will replace the six existing aircraft in the three fleets, with Martinair taking over freighter operations from KLM, according to AFKLM. The airline group will extend leases on those aircraft until the new A350s are delivered.
AFKLM’s cargo division also manages shipments carried in the belly holds of the passenger fleet. The AFKLM Group in September ordered 50 A350 widebody passenger jets.
Cargo Facts and Ch-aviation were first to report on the Air France-KLM order change. Last week’s earnings report still listed the company with scheduled deliveries for eight A350 freighters.
Airbus said it is pushing back initial delivery of the next-generation A350 freighter because of persistent production problems at fuselage supplier Spirit AeroSystems. Airbus previously planned to roll out the new freighter in 2026. The Air France-KLM adjustment means Airbus has received 63 orders for the A350F, including a soft commitment from Starlux for five aircraft.
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 at a news conference. Other undisclosed factors are also contributing to the launch delay of the widebody cargo jet.
The A350F has a maximum payload of 122 U.S. tons and features the widest cargo door in the market.
Q4 results
Air France-KLM last week reported earnings that showed total cargo revenue in the fourth quarter increased 11% to 722 million euros ($786.5 million) behind a 6.8% increase in airfreight traffic. Revenue performance lagged some carriers that boosted revenue by 30% during the busiest shipping quarter of the year. AFKLM also underperformed peers for the entire year with a 3.1% decline in revenue to $2.6 billion.
But isolating for transported traffic – minus other services – air cargo revenue increased about 22% in the quarter and was flat for the year.
Cargo benefited from a better peak season than in 2023, especially from Asia, with unit revenues per available ton kilometer up 21% against a constant currency.
Air France-KLM was unable to fully take advantage of the first-half cargo surge from Asia associated with e-commerce because of limited capacity in the region and payload restrictions due to Russia’s closure of airspace to Western airlines. In the second half of the year, the Group responded by redeploying freighters from Latin America to Asia, which helped push up unit revenues by 13.6% year over year.
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