“On the A350, we continue to target rate 12 in 2028, and we are adjusting the entry into service of the A350 freighter variant, which is now expected in the second half of 2027, so that’s a delayed entry into service,” said Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury.
The A350F, designed to challenge Boeing’s dominance in the freighter market, has already secured orders from major carriers. However, supply chain constraints are affecting production schedules across Airbus’ aircraft programs.
Despite these hurdles, Airbus remains optimistic, citing 224 gross orders for A330 and A350 models in 2024, reflecting strong demand for its widebody aircraft. The company continues its production ramp-up efforts, though Faury described the supply environment as “complex and fast-changing.”
About A350F
The aircraft manufacturer has been targeted a production rate of 12 aircraft per month by 2028 and has been actively working to resolve specific supply chain challenges that could hamper the programme’s ramp up trajectory, having warned that their could be hurdles to overcome through 2025.
This situation reflects the comments Faury made a few months earlier when he cautioned that the company was “constantly adapting to a complex and fast-changing operating environment marked by geopolitical uncertainties and specific supply chain challenges that have materialised in the course of 2024. We remain focused on our priorities, including ramping up commercial aircraft deliveries and transforming our Defence and Space division.”
Engine pylons and tools are already in production, with the teams at the assembly line of the company’s home base in Toulouse ready to receive components and begin the final assembly of the A350F, having adapted the facilities last year to accommodate the plans for the new aircraft.
“The forward part of all our stations – where we want to be freighter capable – had to be modified, so the main jacks and pickup points on the stations were changed. We reworked the concrete, the hardware and the software to accommodate and manage the new fuselage length. Being able to change the jig length globally from one aircraft to another will therefore allow us to be flexible for -900, and -1000 and now the freighter,” Emmanuel Royer, Airbus’ A350F FAL industrial lead, said in November.
Notably, up to now in the FAL stations, there were no aircraft access points at the particular location where there will soon be a cargo door. “We had to transform our stations by positioning special jigs and a tower to allow people to access the main deck cargo door and also permit trolleys into the aircraft through the door
