French blow hits European Airbus

The Airbus superjumbo programme suffered a major new setback today as air freight company UPS said it would cancel its order for 10 A380s, leaving the aircraft maker with an empty order book for the cargo version of its much-delayed flagship.

The move comes just a week after UPS, the world’s largest shipping carrier, said it had agreed with Airbus to postpone its first freighter delivery until 2012, three years later than originally promised.