[媒体名称] CNN Travel [新闻日期] 2020/7/8
[网址] https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/a380-hi-fly-auxilary-freighter/index.html
[内文]
(CNN) — It looks like the ultimate in Covid-era luxury: a huge
passenger jet with economy seats removed and acres of space to stretch
out your legs.
While this temporary reconfiguration of an Airbus A380 is related to
coronavirus, it's not, however, about social distancing.
Portuguese charter operator Hi Fly has removed most of the seats from
its sole A380 in order to make way for more cargo, making it the
world's first A380 to be converted for freight.
As the A380 is the world's largest passenger jet, that's a lot of
space that's been freed up. The aircraft has 300 square meters of
volume capacity and can hold close to 60 tons of cargo, to be precise.
That's even more weight than the Beluga XL, Airbus's gigantic,
whale-resembling freighter airplane, can transport.
Hi Fly tells CNN that it's using its newly converted A380 to transport
medical and protective equipment to aid the fight against Covid-19,
with its most recent destinations being Santo Domingo in the Dominican
Republic, Montreal in Canada, and Tianjin and Wuhan in China.
This aviation first is perhaps a last hurrah for the A380, as Airbus
announced last year that it would stop deliveries of the superjumbo in
2021.
The Covid pandemic also appeared to be hastening its demise, with
airlines including Lufthansa, Qantas and Air France grounding their
remaining A380s as the demand for air travel plummeted.
Popular with air travelers but expensive to operate, the gigantic
double-decker craft with its 853-passenger maximum capacity was simply
"too big for current needs," John Grant of AG Aviation Consultants
told CNN Travel in March.
Hi Fly took over its Airbus A380-800 from Singapore Airlines,
retaining its original interior and 471-seat configuration.
With the economy seats removed (business and first-class remain), Hi
Fly can carry freight across all three levels of the aircraft.
The international transport of critical medical goods has been crucial
to supporting first responders around the world.
"Air cargo solutions have never been more important than they are now
to global health services. Currently, our international teams dispatch
multiple flights daily to ensure that vital medical supplies protect
those in need," Tatyana Arslanova, executive operating officer for
Moscow-based Air Bridge Cargo, told CNN Travel in May.
The Boeing 747-8F, with its climate-controlled cargo hold, has been a
craft of choice during the crisis.
Unlike the 747, however, there's never been a freighter version of the
A380, although Airbus did at one time have plans for one.
That freighter project was canceled. The A380 suffered from
disappointing initial sales and the superjumbo's design