QANTAS FREIGHT READY FOR BIGGEST CHRISTMAS EVER SYDNEY | PUBLISHED ON 19TH DECEMBER 2022 AT 7:44

Qantas Freight is gearing up for a record Christmas season with domestic freight volumes up almost 75 per cent on pre-COVID levels, as online shopping deliveries ramp up.

Across December, the Qantas Freight network will carry around 26,000 tonnes of freight to domestic, regional and international cities, an increase on last December’s record month and up more than 50 per cent on our average monthly uplift.

Qantas Freight operates 19 dedicated freighters domestically (including up to 16 for major partner Australia Post), and four international freighters. Qantas Freight domestic aircraft travel more than 11 million kilometres each year, the equivalent of 14 round trips to the moon.

Qantas Executive Manager for Freight, Catriona Larritt, said work had been underway for months to get ready for the peak season.

“Along with our partner Australia Post we’ve been planning for this bumper season since last Christmas,” Ms Larritt said.

“We’ve seen huge increases in online shopping since the start of the pandemic and remains strong.

“In the last few weeks of December, many people super-charge their online shopping sprees to take advantage of door-to-door express deliveries for themselves as well as gifts for family and friends.

“We’re doing everything we can to help Santa get everyone’s presents under their trees by Christmas morning, including rostering on more staff, using bigger aircraft and putting on special charter services.

“In the busiest days leading up to Christmas we’ll carry around 1,200 tonnes of cargo, around double our daily average amount across our freight fleet and in the belly of passenger flights.

“Our domestic services alone will be move up to 650 tonnes on the busiest nights to help with Santa’s deliveries, equivalent to around 1.3 million iPads.”

Australia Post General Manager Premium Services and International Mark Davies said: “The support of key partners like Qantas has been pivotal in enabling us to deliver for our customers, especially during this incredibly busy period.

“We anticipate a busy last week in the lead up to Christmas with many customers choosing our Express Post option to ensure their gifts reach loved ones in time,” Mr Davies said.

“This year has been bigger than ever for us, in fact to help support the increase in parcel and mail volume we have increased our dedicated freighter capacity by up to 50 per cent in the weeks leading up to Christmas, as we continue to see Australians taking advantage of cyber sales.”

Qantas Freight recently announced it was investing in six Airbus A321 aircraft, as well as converting two A330 passenger jets to freighters to meet growing e-commerce demand.

In addition to Australia Post’s parcels, some of the items Qantas Freight is transporting in the lead up to Christmas include:

Classic cars

Fresh seafood such as coral trout, lobsters and abalone

Cherries, mangoes and stone fruit

Cut flowers

Farm machinery

Qantas

First A321P2F enters into service with Qantas for Australia Post

Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW), the joint venture created by Airbus and ST Engineering has achieved key milestones in the A321 passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversion programme with the delivery and entry-into-service on 2th October of the first converted aircraft to Qantas. This new P2F version is being leased by aircraft asset manager Vallair to Qantas, to operate services on behalf of Australia Post. Last month, following its flight tests, the newly completed aircraft had been delivered by EFW to Vallair.

These milestones mark the completion and ‘birth’ of the world’s first A321 converted freighter. EFW had received the Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for the A321P2F from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in February this year, and the Validation STC from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in July. Operator-specific enhancements were subsequently incorporated into the freighter and certified prior to its delivery from EFW to Vallair.



Andreas Hermann, VP Asset Management at Airbus and member of the EFW shareholder committee said: “We are very pleased to see the A321P2F programme entering service. The Airbus A321 is the platform which, by design, will offer the best economics, cargo capacity and performance in the Single-Aisle freighter segment going forward. For any asset owner this will provide an excellent opportunity to leverage future growth and replacement waves, underpinning the already great value proposition of the A321 today."






Qantas first A321P2F interior

The A321P2F is the first in its size category to offer containerised loading in both the main (up to 14 full container positions) and lower deck (up to 10 container positions). With a generous payload-range capability that can carry 28 metric tonnes over 2,300 nautical miles, the A321P2F is the ideal Single-Aisle freighter aircraft for express domestic and regional operations. The conversion features a large main cargo door which is hydraulically actuated and electrically locked, a ‘Class-E’ main-deck cargo compartment with full rigid 9g barrier for optimal protection between crew and cargo, and a redefined flight deck that includes supernumerary seats.

The collaboration between ST Engineering, Airbus and EFW is the OEM-supported conversion for A321P2F in the market. There has been a keen interest from customers in the solution, which is expected to further grow with the first A321P2F unit entering the market. Looking further ahead, next year the story is set to take another stride when the first A320P2F will take shape.