Lufthansa’s first A321P2F, registration D-AEUC, will commence operations on 15 March for regional subsidiary Lufthansa Cityline. The first operation will link Lufthansa’s home city of Frankfurt with Dublin, Ireland.
After the start of flights, the airline will gradually add flights to Istanbul (IST), Tel Aviv (TLV), Malta (MLA), Tunis (TUN), and Manchester (MAN). On 29 March, it will begin flying to Cairo, which will be a seasonal route during the northern summer. Each of these destinations will be served between two and three times a week.
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While the aircraft will fly under the Lufthansa Cityline banner, the services will be marketed by the group’s cargo division, Lufthansa Cargo. With this aircraft, the German giant will seek to respond to the growth in e-commerce demand.
«These freighters open the door to a strategic business segment,» explains Ashwin Bhat, Chief Commercial Officer of Lufthansa Cargo. «The A321F offers very attractive solutions for same-day delivery and e-commerce in general, both within Europe and to selected medium-haul destinations,» he added.
Speaking about the overall state of the industry, Bhat noted that «on the one hand, available capacity in the global cargo market remains scarce when, at the same time, consumers expect to receive their purchases in the shortest possible time». According to Bhat, aircraft such as the A321F will help «close this gap and continue to provide the capacity our customers need».
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Conversion work on the D-AEUC-registered A321 is now complete. These included, among others, the reinforcement of the cabin floor, the installation of a cargo door and a protective barrier. The A321P2Fs have a total of 14 container positions on the main deck and 10 on the lower deck, with a maximum capacity of 28 tonnes of cargo.
The second model of the type will enter service for Lufthansa in late summer. Like its sibling, it will be operated by Lufthansa CityLine for Lufthansa Cargo under an AICM-type lease.
