Airbus is now the Undisputed king of Aviation while its only real competitor is running itself to the ground the European giant has never been stronger unsurprisingly its Engineers are chomping at the bit to continue innovating and it's only a matter of time before Airbus launches its next project what exactly is that project going to be well there's a whole host of directions that Airbus could take they could build the a322 a 352000 a221 heck they could go all in and just build a clean sheet a360 but a recent surprise decision by Boeing should make airbus's
Choice an easy one for their next plane Airbus should build an A330 Neo freighter let me explain before hopping into it I want to tell you about a sponsor that's really changed how I travel and could also make your upcoming holiday vacation way easier that would be s a new eim service brought to you by Nord security this year I've spent over 30 days outside the US now my phone carriers international plan costs about $12 a day which means I've spent almost $500 on international data in 2024 alone that's way too much so from now
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your eim plan thanks to s for sponsoring today's video and now let's get back to it first let's address the elephant in the room Airbus has already tried and failed to make the A330 Freer a thing back in 2009 Airbus formally launched the type basing it off the successful A332 200 this plane was supposed to compete with the bo 767 freighter but candidly it was a flop Airbus only managed to sell 38 units now to be fair these poor sales weren't entirely airbus's fault after all the plane hit the market in the immediate aftermath of
the 2008 financial crisis a period that saw slowing demand for Air Cargo but even in a friendlier economic climate the A330 freighter probably wouldn't have fared much better for one the 767 freighter had already saturated ated the market customers knew it they trusted it and most importantly they liked its operating economics plus Boeing has a much longer and much stronger track record of frighter Excellence at the end of the day the A330 frighter just kind of occupied a weird spot in the market it was neither as cheap nor efficient as the 767 freighter and while
it did have a higher payload capacity and range it couldn't match the long haul heavy lift capabilities of something like the tri 7 freighter ultimately it was just too Niche and it was largely written off with this history in mind it might seem weird for Airbus to double down and build an A330 Neo Freer that's especially true when you consider that it'll likely be based on the a33 800 a plane that's been wildly unpopular but despite these headwinds there are some very good reasons for Airbus to try their hand again first let's focus on the
competition or should I say the lack thereof it's not exactly a secret that Boeing's been struggling between production issues a painful strike and financial setbacks the Aerospace Titan has been forced to make some tough calls about its business and one of those decisions was to suspend production of the 767 Freer program now on the surface this doesn't seem like that big of a deal the 767 is decades old and it's not exactly in high demand anymore but in recent years Boeing's expressed at least some level of interest in redeveloping the platform if it were to
do so this new 767 Max freeder would likely keep dominating the midsize crater space but now that the program's been cancelled this next gen jet just isn't going to happen and Boeing is essentially vacating the market now this decision is being made at a precarious time for cargo operators demand for Air Cargo is steadily growing and operators just need new planes to keep up now in the past these operators didn't actually need to buy new planes to keep up with demand they could quickly and cheaply grow their capacity by acquiring secondhand passenger Jets and then
converting them into freighter but this strategy is proving to be less and less sustainable in recent years new aircraft production has slowed due to supply chain issues so many airlines have been holding on to their aging jets for longer this means that there aren't nearly as many secondhand aircraft available to be converted to freighter use and those that are available are selling at above Market rates so now these customers can no longer buy new planes from Boeing nor can they come up with a solution themselves now to be fair Boeing isn't actually stopping production of
the 767 until 2027 they're just no longer taking new orders so between now and then they could always launch something like the 787 freighter to help fill the Gap but I want you to ask ask yourself something do you really think that Boeing has the bandwidth to get this project off the ground think about all it's contending with it's staring down huge production challenges it's in the midst of a leadership shakeup it's in a cash crunch it's racing to get delayed aircraft certified there is just so so much that Boeing has to focus on to
restore the health of its business taking on a project like the 787 fre just isn't a top priority heck it's not even the next 787 variant that it needs to build like I alluded to in a previous video Boeing really needs to focus on getting a longer range version of the 787-10 to Market lest they keep getting walloped by the a350 900 okay so let's briefly recap what we know so far Boeing is stopping production of its wildly popular 767 freighter it doesn't have the bandwidth to develop a replacement and passenger to Cargo conversions are
growing expensive all the while demand for Air Cargo is surging it's pretty clear that if Airbus can step in and help fill the void they could sell a lot of planes of course this approach is not a Sure Fire winner it still carries risk Airbus just doesn't have a very strong freighter Legacy and considering just how underwhelming the original A330 freighter was our customers is actually going to want to stake their future on a Neo version well the good news for Airbus is that there's reason to believe that the Neo version would be a major
major step up let's get the obvious out of the way first the Neo is more efficient than its predecessor its new Trent 7000 engines paired with its redesigned Wing makes the Neo about 15% more efficient than planes that came before it okay that's great and all but honestly cargo operators just don't care about fuel burn in the same way that Airlines do what they really care about is carrying capacity and price and luckily the Neo can deliver in both of these areas let's start with payload capacity ever since the Neo entered service in 2018 Airbus
has continued to Tinker with its design and improve its performance and one specific area of focus has been its takeoff weight by strengthening the plane's gear the MTO of the a 33800 has increased from 242 tons to 251 and Airbus is poised to make even more improvements down the road just recently Airbus announced it's going to build an A330 800 mrtt essentially Airbus is taking the 800's airframe and militarizing it to serve as a refueling tanker now if you know anything about tankers you'll know they carry a ton of weight this means Airbus is probably
already working on further improving the platform's heavy lift capabilities and then there's cost the beauty of the Neo is that it's relatively affordable despite its Advanced features and functionality it cost Airbus just $2 billion to develop and creating a freighter version probably wouldn't cost all that much more Airbus can then pass off these savings to their freigh or customers okay so the Neo platform is clearly better than its predecessor but airus is still going to have to battle one major obstacle history over the years Boeing has dominated the Air Cargo space controlling roughly 90% of
the new freighter Market it's been Boe not Airbus that customers have trusted time and time again and even if Airbus is the only option on the market convincing these customers to switch is going to be no easy task but the a350 freighter is helping Airbus change the narrative launched back in 2021 this jet has done something that no Airbus freighter has done before really truly challenge Bo it's almost split the large freighter market with the 7-8 freighter and when you consider just how widely adopted the original Tri 7 freighter has been this is a major
coup the fact that more and more carriers are embracing the a350 freighter is giving Airbus renewed credibility in the cargo space and this momentum could help to boost the A330 Neo freighter at the end of the day the Neo freighter should stand Head and Shoulders above the planes that came before it not only that but it would be hitting the market when customers really need it it would do so completely unchallenged and it would ride the momentum of airbus's renewed freighter confidence so while it might not seem like the obvious choice to be airbus's next
project the 330 Neo freighter could work wonders and help Airbus cement its place in the cargo space so what do you guys think should Airbus build the 330 Neo Freer or would their time be better served focusing on something like a a350 stretch or an a221 let me know your thoughts in the comment section below oh and if you want to see a unique behindth scenes tour of an A330 neofight test vehicle then be sure to check out this video right here thank you so much to my patrons for helping to make this video possible
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