Just under two years ago, in January 2022, Airbus launched its outsized air-cargo service, Airbus Beluga Transport (AiBT), operated by Airbus Transport International (ATI).
However, the vision was always to create a dedicated airline with its own Air Operator Certificate (AOC).
With the latter now awarded, we talk to AiBTs managing director Benoît Lemonnier and also to the head of flight operations Olivier Schneider to learn how this was achieved and what challenges lie ahead.
“For our final dossier we had been compiling many documents during the first half of this year, encompassing Flight Safety, Flight Operations, Ground Operations, Technical Operations and Crew Training,” recalls Benoît Lemonnier, managing director of AiBT.
“We submitted it at the end of June 2023 following which we answered questions and fine-tuned over the summer. Of course, we didn’t start from scratch, since we had built on the documentation and processes of ATI.”
Once the decisive audit by the authorities was passed successfully on the 26th of September, there remained one important ‘box to tick’ – the “Continuous Airworthiness and Maintenance Organisation” certificate (CAMO), which came at the beginning of November.
With all these approvals successfully achieved, AiBT could at last really call itself an ‘airline’ and operate under its own AOC.
Benoît notes that becoming an airline not only entails documentation and compliance to regulation, it was also an effort to set up the company in terms of all kinds of resources.
“We staffed the right people in the right place. First our management was staffed at the beginning of the year until mid-2023. Then we recruited the necessary expert resources in the various fields of flight operations, dispatch crew planning, and also some new pilots. To date we have recruited almost 60 employees into the company – either through external recruitment or via internal job mobility within Airbus, mainly from ATI. We trained our people to be ready from ‘day one’.”
Operating as an autonomous freight airline
“We of course developed our facilities which included the new main office headquarters, close to Blagnac airport,” says Benoît.
“We also secured our aircraft operational base at Francazal airport near to Toulouse, with two dedicated parking spots. From there our ground crews have been developing the capacity and capabilities to prepare the Beluga and its missions, especially in terms of loading and unloading the transport pallets as well as managing and maintaining the aircraft.”
The other major pillar of the fledgling operation was the official transfer of the BelugaSTs from ATI’s fleet register to AiBT’s (on lease from Airbus). Currently AiBT’s fleet includes three aircraft, with the fourth one due for induction in 2024.
“In short, we now have the aircraft, we have the people and we have the facilities – and the certificate. So now we can operate missions as our own airline!” enthuses Benoît.