Paris/Boston, March 2 (Reuters): Troubled Airbus suffered its second hammerblow in a week today when the last cargo customer deserted the freight version of its delayed A380 superjumbo, days after the planemaker announced 10,000 job cuts.

United Parcel Service Inc. said it planned to cancel an order for 10 Airbus A380 freighters, worth approximately $3 billion at list prices, joining its rival FedEx which cancelled an identical order last year.

The US express firms were among buyers angered by delays of up to two years in A380 deliveries, and had been the sole takers of a superfreighter version on which Airbus had pinned hopes of challenging the Boeing 747 in global airborne trade. UPS said it was concerned that Airbus, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), could not fill its orders in a timely manner.

UPS had already said it was delaying taking deliveries of its 10 aircraft beyond 2010 and reached agreement with Airbus last week to wait for the results of a review.

All that changed when EADS and Airbus said yesterday the planemaker would temporarily stop working on the cargo version of the world’s largest airliner in Toulouse, France.

“UPS had intended to complete an internal study of whether it could wait until 2012 for the aircraft, but now understands Airbus is diverting employees from the A380 freighter programme to work on the passenger version of the plane,” it said. Airbus warned on Wednesday its survival was at stake as it cut jobs and put plants up for sale.