Airbus rents out Beluga transporters amid air freight boom

Airbus is capitalising on the explosion in demand for air freight by renting out the enormous planes it uses to transportation wings amongst its factories.

The BelugaST transporters are 184ft (56 metres) prolonged, 56ft (17 metres) superior and have a payload of 47 tonnes.

They are based mostly on the bodies of the A300 widebody aircraft but have tremendously expanded cargo room, giving them an ungainly, whale-like physical appearance.

The freight support, Airbus Beluga Transportation, has previously flown a helicopter from France to Japan with out needing to take it apart.

The move will increase the solutions for customers wanting to shift very huge and/or major objects by air.

The six-motor Ukranian-manufactured Antonov An-225 and its lesser cousin the An-124 are equipped to fly heavier payloads than the Beluga, but the Airbus aircraft is each higher and substantially broader.

The Airbus fleet is currently being replaced by an even bigger plane, dubbed the BelugaXL, able of accommodating payloads up to 8 metres extensive, leaving five older planes with 20 yrs of provider lifetime remaining.