Etihad Gets A330F With Increased Payload

Airbus has increased maximum payload by over 500 kilos by reducing the aircraft's empty weight and also increased the A330's maximum zero fuel weight by eight tonnes in order to achieve a load density of ten pounds per cubic foot. Maximum payload is now over 69 tonnes.

With "less than 10 aircraft" to be delivered in 2010, according to a spokesman, customers include Aircastle Limited, Guggenheim Aviation Partners, Intrepid Aviation Group, Avion Aircraft Trading, BOC Aviation, MatlinPatterson Global Advisers, Etihad Crystal Cargo, Flyington Freighters, MNG Airlines and ACT Airlines.

Airbus and its North American partner Northrop Grumman are considering whether to compete with Boeing for the third time to offer a variant of the A330 as a replacement for the U.S. Air Force's KC135 tanker. The aircraft has already been ordered by Australia, the UK, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Australia recently completed the first in-flight refueling test with the A330's integrated refueling boom system.

Last year Airbus announced it would build the tanker and the freighter at a new $600 million facility in Mobile, Alabama.