Against the backdrop of the full-scale war of russia against Ukraine, Airbus hoped that its unique-looking Beluga transport aircraft would replace Ukrainian An-124 Ruslan for the transportation services contract under the SALIS program for NATO.
But the expectations fell through, for reasons not only related to the differences between the two aircraft but also because of the "lack of awareness" among the Alliance members, Opex360 reports.
More specifically, in 2023, the aerospace corporation Airbus created a subsidiary company Airbus Beluga Transport (AiBT). It was assumed that this branch would operate a fleet of five Beluga ST wide-body aircraft and four newer Beluga XL aircraft and oriented towards the segment of air transportation market that had been previously occupied by the An-124 Ruslan under the SALIS (Strategic Airlift International Solution) initiative.
Airbus saw its advantage in having a sufficiently large fleet of ready-to-use wide-body transport aircraft, which are easy to operate and maintain, and had previously been involved in performing non-standard transportation tasks, such as transfer of aircraft components over long distances.
An obvious disadvantage was that Beluga aircraft did not have the classic ramp for loading and unloading equipment, as on specialized military transport aircraft. But Airbus circumvented this problem by creating a special separate utility that replaced the ramp and simplified the process of placing cargo inside a Beluga ST's cargo bay.
Airbus Beluga XL 5, this morning at Toulouse #Airbus #beluga #Belugaxl #AvGeek #avgeeks #aviation pic.twitter.com/Tn6z8FUKVg— Eurospot (@cliper31) June 9, 2022
However, in early 2025 Airbus had to close its subsidiary Airbus Beluga Transport, and its 75 employees were transferred to other divisions of the corporation. Although it sounds paradoxical, the reason was that the demand for air transportation of outsize cargo was not as great as Airbus expected.
One might think that it's because of the differences in features and capacity between the Belugas and Ruslans but as follows from the words of officials asked by Opex360, it actually happened because the potential customers did not fully understand what they really wanted.
The article quotes General Stéphane Mille, Chief of Staff of the French Air Force (CEMAAE), saying in October 2023 that NATO's SALIS program was using old aircraft that would eventually need replacement. But to create a sufficient market demand for replacement and establish a new airlift program within NATO, the Alliance members first of all must "raise awareness" and come to an agreement.
