While most of the world’s A380 super-jumbos are grounded, many of them permanently, one of them has become a sort of ugly duckling freighter, with most of its seats removed to make room for cargo.
With so many of the world’s airlines barely operating international flights, the demand for air cargo capacity has led a number of airlines to temporarily convert passenger planes for cargo, either by strapping packages into seats or be removing most of the seats.
Now, Hi-Fly, a Portuguese airplane leasing company has turned that trick with its A380, a plane it normally operates only for charters or to cover emergencies for airlines whose planes are out for maintenance. Hi-Fly didn’t actually want an A380, but when Singapore Airlines returned it at the end of its lease, no one wanted to take it off Hi-Fly’s hands.
Hi-Fly has removed only the economy seats; the premium seats are too complex and expensive to remove and then restore them, when, and if, it returns to passenger service.
And, to be honest, just as the A380 has serious issues as a passenger plane (four engines, high fuel burn, limited airports and passengers wanting direct flights rather than hubs) it also has serious issues as a cargo plane. As a freight hauler, it’s hampered by a cargo hold smaller than that of many smaller planes (making room for two decks worth of seats), by having the upper deck doors smaller, and higher off the ground than most loading systems can handle, and finally by being itself so heavy that it reaches its cargo weight limit long before its full.
Airbus originally planned a freight version, based on preliminary orders from FedEx. The A380F would have had its decks arranged differently for cargo, but FedEx withdrew from the plan when it realized that because of the weight issue it would still haul less than its 747F freighters and its 767Fs.
