LONDON – Lufthansa Cargo has today outlined plans for the beginning of its route network using its recently acquired Airbus A321P2F aircraft.

The cargo side of the German carrier will begin operations on March 15 serving the following destinations, to begin with:

• Istanbul (IST)
• Tel Aviv (TLV)
• Malta (MLA)
• Tunis (TUN)
• Dublin (DUB)
• Manchester (MAN)

It is understood that these services will be served two to three times per week to and from Frankfurt am Main International Airport.

Then, by March 29, the carrier will add Cairo to its network as well.

Commenting on the news was Ashwin Bhat, the Chief Commercial Officer at Lufthansa Cargo:

“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 air freight 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.”

Lufthansa Cargo already has D-AEUC, with conversion by Lufthansa CityLine already completed.

The A321P2Fs in the Lufthansa Cargo fleet will be able to handle a total of 14 pallet and container positions in the main deck and 10 in the lower deck per aircraft.

This results in an overall payload of 28 tons per flight. It is understood that the second A321P2F will enter service in the early Summer.