Ontario Benefits from Upgrades Even if UPS Won't Bring in A380s

United Parcel Service said Friday it will cancel an order for 10 Airbus A380s, just three years after the LA/Ontario International Airport spent more than $50 million expanding its runway to accommodate superjumbo cargo aircraft.

Atlanta-based UPS, which has its West Coast hub at the Ontario airport, said Friday in a statement it was no longer confident Airbus will be able to deliver the planes on time. UPS was the last remaining customer for the cargo version of the Airbus superjumbo jet.

Despite the cancellation, airport officials and local economists said the runway expansions will still benefit the airport.

Ontario airport spokesman Harold Johnson said in an e-mail the runway expansions were a long-term investment and will help the airport attract new large aircraft in the future, whether they are manufactured by Airbus or its main competitor, Boeing.

"They're wise," Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said of airport officials. "We know there's going to be tremendous growth in international trade cargo. A lot of airports across the country have said we don't want an A380. But if you are able to accommodate an A380, that's good news."

Kyser said the only loser as a result of UPS' decision is Airbus.

"They've got a lot of headaches," he said, referring to the airplane manufacturer's production delays, canceled orders and labor cutbacks.

UPS spokesman Norman Black said the company canceled its contracts after it learned Thursday that Airbus had shifted employees from finishing the freight planes to finishing the passenger aircraft.

"We came to the conclusion that we simply don't believe it's realistic now that they would deliver the first freighter versions in 2012," he said. "I can't predict what aircraft we'll be buying then, but I can say we'll be absolutely confident that we'll get all the aircraft we need. We're certainly talking to Boeing."

Black added that UPS has in the past taken former passenger planes, gutted them and made them large freighters. Black said the company will still need "15 MD-11 heavy jets and 10 747 heavy jets that are going to be delivered in the next two years."

The Ontario airport finished the $50 million runway expansion early last year and recently completed an estimated $8 million worth of modifications to ramps and taxiway areas that will be used by UPS. The airport is among the 20 busiest cargo airports in the United States, and UPS handles almost three-quarters of the volume.

"We're going to be using Ontario for a long, long time," Black said. "We're always going to need Ontario."

UPS, the largest package delivery company in the world, had originally expected its order - valued at $2.8 billion - to be delivered beginning in 2010.

The New York Times News Service and Press-Enterprise reporter Josh Brown contributed to this report.

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