The Airbus Beluga, one of the world鈥檚 strangest airplanes, now has its own airline.
The odd-looking, oversized cargo plane 鈥 a favourite among planespotters around the world 鈥 has been in service for close to two decades. It mainly transports aircraft parts between Airbus鈥 manufacturing facilities spread throughout Europe.
Now, a new version of the Beluga is replacing the original fleet, which has gone on to power a freight airline called Airbus Beluga Transport.
鈥淭here are very few options on the market for oversize items,鈥 says Benoît Lemonnier, head of Airbus Beluga Transport. 鈥淢ost often there鈥檚 a need to partially dismantle a payload to make it fit in an aircraft 鈥 whereas in the Beluga, it will just fit.鈥
The original fleet
The very first Beluga was originally known as the Airbus Super Transporter. But after its nickname 鈥 derived from the resemblance to the 鈥 gained popularity, Airbus decided to rename the aircraft Beluga ST, retaining the original name in the acronym.
It first flew in 1994 and entred service in 1995, followed over the years by four more examples, the last of which was rolled out in late 2000.
鈥淭he Beluga was developed to transport large sections of Airbus aircraft from its factories in France, Germany, the UK, Spain and Turkey to the final assembly lines located in Toulouse and Hamburg,鈥 explains Lemonnier. 鈥淚t is a very special design, because it鈥檚 actually a transformation of an A300-600 that had its entire head removed and then equipped with special fuselage shells, a bigger door and dedicated flight equipment.鈥
Before the Beluga, Airbus was using a fleet of , modified versions of 1950s Boeing Stratocruiser passenger planes that had previously been in service with NASA to ferry spacecraft parts. Now, history is repeating itself as the original Beluga is being replaced by a more spacious and advanced model, the Beluga XL.
Longer and bigger than the ST, the Beluga XL is capable of carrying both wings, rather than just one, of the Airbus A350, the company鈥檚 latest long-haul aircraft that rivals the Boeing 787 and 777.
鈥淭he XL is based on a much more modern platform, the A330,鈥 Lemonnier adds. 鈥淪ince 2018, six XLs have been built, and the latest one will be delivered very soon to the internal Airbus airline. The Beluga XL can fully substitute the Beluga ST on the internal Airbus network, so the STs can become available for alternative service.鈥
Old but not out
The original Beluga STs might be approaching two decades of service, but according to Lemonnier, there鈥檚 still a lot of life left in them: 鈥淒epending on how often they fly, they may remain in service for 20 more years, easily.鈥
One of them will keep working for Airbus and ferry aircraft parts, while the remaining four will be exclusively in the fleet of the new cargo airline.
It鈥檚 not the first time that the Belugas are used outside Airbus, however. 鈥淲e had some chartered flights between 2000 and 2010, when there was some capacity left and the Beluga were used to transport helicopters and satellites,鈥 he says.
Then, in 2022, the company a dozen test missions in preparation for the airline launch. 鈥淭he difference now is that we are fully standalone, so we can be flexible for our customers and accept date changes, for example, meaning we can stay in one area to wait for a payload 鈥 something that would probably be impossible for the Airbus internal airline to do,鈥 Lemonnier says.
Because the Beluga ST鈥檚 cargo hold is 50 per cent higher and 10 per cent wider than regular cargo aircraft 鈥 like the Boeing 747-8F 鈥 it is generally used to transport voluminous items such as satellites, helicopters, aircraft engines, flight simulators, sailing boats and army vehicles.
Flying on the Beluga can be a little different than on regular aircraft, Lemonnier notes.
鈥淚t can have a sensitive behavior in the wind due to its big head, and that鈥檚 why it requires specific training for pilots,鈥 he says. 鈥淏ut otherwise it flies very much like an A300-600 鈥 the cockpit is totally unchanged.鈥
One limitation is the range of 3,000 kilometres (1,600 nautical miles), which means that trips from Europe to the United States require up to two refueling stops, generally in the Azores and Canada.
Another is the maximum cargo weight of 40 metric tons; because the Beluga is designed for volume, rivals like the Antonov AN-124 can carry three times as much weight, and the former largest airplane in the world 鈥 the AN-225, in 2022 鈥 had capacity for a whopping 250 tons.
A niche market
The intended operation for the Airbus Beluga Transport is quite different to standard commercial freighter operations, according to Gary Crichlow, an aviation analyst at consultancy firm AviationValues.
鈥淭ransporting helicopters, satellites and other large assets brings certain operational complexities that transporting packages for Amazon would not normally have to deal with,鈥 he says. 鈥淔or example, the maximum altitude at which a helicopter鈥檚 structure is certificated sets the maximum altitude at which the transport flight can operate.鈥
Crichlow also notes that while the Beluga ST鈥檚 capacity of 40 metric tons pales in comparison to Antonov aircraft, there are five Beluga STs, and Airbus advertises them as featuring one of the most voluminous cargo holds of any civil or military aircraft flying today.
鈥淐learly Airbus is not aiming to be Amazon Prime,鈥 he says, 鈥渂ut having amortized each Beluga鈥檚 鈧183 million (US$199 million) cost over the past 20 years, this would appear to be a relatively low-risk opportunity to earn revenue from a niche of the freighter market.鈥
