On 15th March 2022, the German flag carrier, Lufthansa will be adding newly converted Airbus A321 to its cargo network. The first route for the A321F will be Frankfurt – Dublin, with future vision of the company including adding routes to; Istanbul (IST), Tel Aviv (TLV), Malta (MLA), Tunis (TUN), Dublin (DUB) and Manchester (MAN) and Cairo (CAI).
Lufthansa Cargo Takes Flight
Ashwin Bhat, who has been Lufthansa Cargo’s Chief Commercial Officer since last year, stated:
“With the added medium-haul freighters, we are opening up a whole new strategic business segment. In the future, the A321F will offer attractive same-day and eCommerce solutions within Europe and to selected medium-haul destinations, and the new network represents a major step towards the fast-growing eCommerce segment,”
“On one hand, available capacity in the global airfreight market continues to be scarce and, at the same time, end consumers expect short delivery times for their ordered goods. With the medium-haul freighter, we can close this gap and continue to reliably and quickly provide our customers with the capacity they need with the same quality and expertise for which Lufthansa Cargo is known.”
A321 Conversion
To carry and comply with cargo rules and regulations, they have had to convert the nearly 14-year-old Airbus A321 planes before official use. The conversion of the aircraft includes; reinforcing the floor, adding systems that allow the crew to move cargo and fitting new large enough doors. The A321 can seat 185- 236 passengers and, after conversion will be able to hold 28 tons of cargo weight.
Customers will be able to book cargo two weeks prior to the launch, on 1st March 2022. Will you be using Lufthansa’s new service? Let us know in the comments below.
