Since November, a fourth A321 freighter has been operating in Lufthansa Cargo’s network to add capacity to its short and medium haul network, making a significant contribution to the cargo carrier’s expansion plans.
The freighter completes the A321F fleet, meeting the growing freight requirements of its customers. With 14 pallet and container positions on the main deck and 10 on the lower deck, the twin-engine medium-haul aircraft has a total payload of 28 tons each and offers fast and flexible transportation solutions in scheduled or charter operations.
It has already made its first flights to Istanbul, Helsinki, Stockholm, Birmingham, Dublin, Casablanca, Copenhagen and Madrid.
Ashwin Bhat, CEO of Lufthansa Cargo, said: “In total, we will serve 18 destinations in the short and medium-haul network on more than 32 weekly flights with Airbus A321 freighters.
“The high demand and the very positive feedback from our customers confirm our strategy to further expand our capacity and offer with the fast connections of the A321F operations. In addition, we are constantly evaluating our route network to create and adapt new capacities.”
For more than one and a half years now, Lufthansa Cargo has been successfully offering its customers fast and flexible transport solutions in both scheduled and charter business with its A321F fleet.
As part of its expansion strategy, Lufthansa Cargo continues to enlarge and optimise its existing A321F network. The new winter flight schedule, which came into effect at the end of October, includes two new destinations: Amman and Stockholm.
The Jordanian capital Amman is connected to the central cargo hub in Germany once a week by an A321 freighter.
Stockholm Arlanda is an important hub for the transportation of pharmaceutical and temperature-sensitive goods. Three times a week, the flight connects Frankfurt and Stockholm. The new routing takes place on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
The Friday flight especially offers customers the possibility of late deliveries at the end of the industry’s production week, connecting in Frankfurt to Lufthansa Cargo’s worldwide network the next morning.
On 23 November, Stavanger was added to the A321F network. Stavanger is already part of the B777F network but will now be served once a week by A321 freighters.
The medium-haul freighter will fly every Thursday from Frankfurt to Stavanger and back to Frankfurt via Copenhagen. With Copenhagen and Helsinki already being part of the A321F network, the addition of Stockholm Arlanda and Stavanger now completes the Nordic countries.
Henning Oldendorf, head of sales and handling for the Nordics and Baltics at Lufthansa Cargo, said: “I am very pleased that with our latest additions we now connect all Nordic countries to the rest of the world with our A321 freighter fleet.”
In addition to the expanded A321F service on short and medium-haul routes, Lufthansa Cargo offers its customers 83 weekly connections with currently 16 Boeing 777 freighters to intercontinental destinations in this year’s winter flight schedule and markets the belly capacities of more than 6,000 flights operated by Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Discover Airlines and SunExpress.
The fleet is expected to grow to 18 B777 freighters during the winter flight schedule.
