From October 2022, Lufthansa Cargo will add a second A321 Freighter to their fleet and will expand their intra-European network to include Birmingham, London and Madrid. Two more A321 Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) aircraft will join the Group's fleet during H1 2023.
On Monday (August 29, 2022), Lufthansa Cargo announced that they will add an additional Airbus A321 Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) aircraft to their fleet from October 2022, and will expand their intra-European network to include Birmingham (BHX), London (LHR), and Madrid (MAD). The additional destinations complement existing service to Istanbul (IST), Tel Aviv (TLV), Malta (MLA), Tunis (TUN), Manchester (MAN) and Cairo (CAI). With the new aircraft, Istanbul and Tel Aviv will see additional frequencies. The second A321P2F, registration D-AEUA, is currently being converted in Singapore. The Group’s first A321 freighter flight (D-AEUC, ‘Hello Europe’) first departed Frankfurt for Dublin in March 2022. Like ‘Hello Europe’ the second A321F will be based at the Frankfurt hub and will operate by Lufthansa CityLine under a wet-lease agreement with Lufthansa Cargo flight numbers.
In Monday’s announcment, Lufthansa Cargo’s Chief Commercial Officer, Ashwin Bhat, said,
“I am very pleased about the expansion of our A321 freighter network and capacity. Complementing our B777F and belly capacity, we can now offer even shorter transport times within European and to selected medium-haul destinations. To the UK and Ireland, for example, we will offer daily weekday flights to Birmingham and Dublin, enabling our customers to build reliable, scalable and fast supply-chains. It is our goal to build a European Same-Day and eCommerce network and thereby establish Lufthansa Cargo as the leading European cargo airline and service partner in the market. In addition to Lufthansa Cargo’s high quality standards on the ground, the A321 freighter is a very flexible aircraft, which will enable us to build customized networks and solutions for our customers.”
The twin-engine advanced narrowbody A321P2F has a payload capacity of 28 tons on 14 pallets and container positions on the main deck and 10 on the lower deck. Lufthansa Cargo continues to enlarge their footprint in support of the fast growing eCommerce and Same-Day market segments, and the added capacity will facilitate daily weekday service to the UK and Ireland. The Group will also add two more A321Fs to their fleet during the first half of 2023 to complement medium-haul services.
With revenue of €3.8 billion and 7.2 billion freight ton kilometers in 2021, Lufthansa Cargo is one of the world’s leading air freight companies, employing approximately 4,200 team members worldwide. The cargo carrier serves around 300 destinations in over 100 countries with a dedicated fleet of freighters, as well as belly-hold cargo capacity of passenger aircraft operated by Lufthansa German Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings Discover and SunExpress. In 2022, the airline will equip their fleet of dedicated freighters with Sharkskin technology to reduce drag, and expand their SAF program to further reduce CO2 emissions. The company also operates an extensive road feeder service network. Lufthansa Cargo is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa AG and is the Group’s logistics specialist.
Source: Lufthansa Cargo