Qantas Freight to get three Airbus A321PCF freighters, following agreement with Australia Post

19 August 2019 © David Eyre

Qantas Freight has announced that it is to acquire three Airbus A321P2F (Passenger to Freighter) converted aircraft from October 2020. Qantas will be the first airline in the world to operate the A321 as a freighter aircraft.

The first aircraft is confirmed as MSN 835, as A321-231 which was built in 1998 and originally delivered to British Midland as G-MIDC, operated until 2010. It was then registered N835AG upon return to its leasing company, before being leased to Onur Air (Turkey) as TC-OBJ in 2011. From 2014 to 2016, Onur Air sub-leased the aircraft to Zagrosjet (Iraq), still as TC-OBJ. It then returned to Onur Air until October 2018, when it became D-ANJA with Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW) for conversion to A321PCF. The aircraft is owned by Luxembourg-based Vallair and will be leased to Express Freighters Australia, which operates under the Qantas Freight brand.

The next two A321P2Fs to be converted are rumoured to be former Jetstar A321s VH-VWY and VH-VWZ.

Each A321P2F adds nearly 50 per cent more capacity – or an additional 9 tonnes – compared to the existing Boeing 737 freighters.

The announcement was made as part of a media release regarding an expanded 7-year domestic and international air freight agreement between Qantas Group and Australia Post, to support the growing demand for parcels, valued at over $1 billion. This media release stated this will “give Australia Post customers access to Qantas Freight’s dedicated freighter aircraft and priority access to the cargo space on up to 1,500 Qantas and Jetstar passenger flights to over 110 destinations each day, in addition to space on partner airlines globally.”