The arrival of a sixth Airbus A321 converted freighter has unlocked more cargo service to New Zealand and Hong Kong for Qantas following the Australian airline’s switch to an all-Airbus cargo fleet.
Qantas Freight now operates three times per week to Hong Kong utilizing an A330-200 retrofitted cargo aircraft after adding first-ever weekly service from Perth to Hong Kong to cater to shipments from western Australia. The flight is on top of existing twice-weekly service between Sydney and Hong Kong, according to a new flight schedule published last week.
Shippers also have more choices to move products between Australia and New Zealand with five weekly services from Sydney to Christchurch via Auckland. Four of the flights are conducted with standard-size A321s, including a new weekend service. Qantas also offers a weekly service on the route with an A330 to support customers with larger shipments.
On Tuesday, Qantas Freight will add Melbourne as a destination to the regional Oceania freighter service to provide more import/export services from southern Australia into New Zealand. The addition of the A321 cargo jet frees up Qantas to deploy the A330 on the Hong Kong route, spokesman Oliver Craven-McLeay explained in an email.
“Demand for freight services is rising, particularly in Asia, and we’re looking at several options to extend the A330 freighter schedule to more places in Asia as we want to meet that need now and into the future,” said Igor Kwiatkowski, executive manager for Qantas Freight, in a news release. “These changes give freight customers in Australia, New Zealand and Asia more opportunity through greater frequency of services and the enhanced capacity of our Airbus fleet.”
Qantas this year phased out older Boeing cargo jets in favor of a younger Airbus fleet. The final Boeing 767-300, a medium widebody in the same category as the A330, last flew for Qantas Freight in May. The cargo unit retired its last Boeing 737 converted freighter in August, Craven-McLeay confirmed. The airline until recently operated five 737-300/400 cargo aircraft.
Qantas Freight in October 2020 deployed the world’s first A321 passenger-to-freighter aircraft ever produced. The company plans to double the A321 fleet to 12 aircraft over the next few years to capitalize on the growth in e-commerce shipments. Several of the aircraft, which are produced by a conversion specialist affiliated with Airbus, are flown under contract for Australia Post.
The two A330-200 freighters in the fleet are former Qantas passenger jets that were modified last year to carry cargo containers.
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