Is there a serious freighter conversion programme under way for any of the newer Airbus Wide-Bodies?
Well, if there is I doubt it will sell in great number for the following technical reasons:
- all the A330/340 series have a pronounced nose-down attitude on the ground. So in order to overcome this you need to redesign the NLG, which will add a lot to the conversion cost. Without, just forget to push the pallets up, or even worse, to break the pallets when they slide down.
- the A330/340 is optimized for passenger transport. The have a vilid freighter equivalent to a MD11/747 you would need to get the payoad i the region of 65t for an A330-200 (as example). The fuselage will simply not take that.
So, what do you end up with? An expensive conversion with a minimal load. Nah, not at this time and not for the longer term future.