Holiday seasons and a frenzy of online shopping have given Qantas a reason to celebrate. Qantas Freight is gearing up for a record Christmas season with domestic freight volumes up almost 75% on pre-COVID levels, as online shopping deliveries ramp up.
Across December 2022, the Qantas Freight network will carry around 26,000 tonnes of freight to domestic, regional and international cities, an increase on last December’s record month and up more than 50% of its average monthly uplift.
Catriona Larritt, Executive Manager for Qantas Freight, said: “Work had been underway for months to get ready for the peak season. Along with our partner Australia Post we’ve been planning for this bumper season since last Christmas. We’ve seen huge increases in online shopping since the start of the pandemic and remains strong. In the last few weeks of December, many people super-charge their online shopping sprees to take advantage of door-to-door express deliveries for themselves as well as gifts for family and friends. In the busiest days leading up to Christmas we’ll carry around 1,200 tonnes of cargo, around double our daily average amount across our freight fleet and in the belly of passenger flights. Our domestic services alone will be move up to 650 tonnes on the busiest nights to help with Santa’s deliveries, equivalent to around 1.3 million iPads.”
Mark Davies, General Manager Premium Services, Australia Post said: “The support of key partners like Qantas has been pivotal in enabling us to deliver for our customers, especially during this incredibly busy period. This year has been bigger than ever for us, in fact to help support the increase in parcel and mail volume we have increased our dedicated freighter capacity by up to 50% in the weeks leading up to Christmas, as we continue to see Australians taking advantage of cyber sales.”
Qantas Freight recently announced it was investing in six Airbus A321 aircraft, as well as converting two A330 passenger jets to freighters to meet growing e-commerce demand.
Qantas Freight operates 19 dedicated freighters domestically including up to 16 for major partner Australia Post, and four international freighters. Qantas Freight domestic aircraft travel more than 11 million kilometres each year, the equivalent of 14 round trips to the moon.