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9 December, 2024

Qantas Freight unveils specially decorated ‘Santa’s Freight’ aircraft

Edited by Travel Weekly

Qantas Freight has unveiled a specially decorated “Santa’s Freight” aircraft as it prepares to deliver more than 50,000 tonnes of international and domestic freight for the festive season.

This year, Qantas Freight volumes for the Christmas period are expected to be up 5 per cent compared to last year as online shopping continues to boom.

Qantas Freight boosts its operation to get gifts under trees and ingredients on tables in time for Christmas. The freighter fleet will fly around 550 additional hours across the domestic network in November and December, equivalent to 23 days of 24-hour flying.

Additional days of operation across the fleet adds 3,000 tonnes of domestic capacity, the equivalent to flying 12,000 fully-grown reindeer to cities and regional ports around Australia.

To celebrate the festive season, one of the six Qantas Freight A321 freighters has been gift wrapped in a new “Santa’s Freight” livery. The merry livery celebrates the season and heralds the tonnes of packages, mail and popular Australian food such as seafood, seasonal produce, and even Christmas puddings carried on Qantas Freight during the Christmas peak.

“While Santa and his elves have been preparing to fly gifts for kids around the world, Qantas Freight has been busy getting our fleet of freight sleighs ready for the Christmas peak,” Qantas Freight executive manager, Igor Kwiatkowski, said. “We’ve increased flying hours, and we’ll have more support, extra capacity and our very own ‘Santa’s Freight’ aircraft to deliver more than 50 million kilos of freight this Christmas.

“We’ll be spending the next few weeks flying gifts, cards, and perishables like mangoes and prawns across the country, and the world, and we’re delighted to play this important role for what is a really special time for families.”

Qantas Freight carries cargo around the world with five international freighters and in passenger aircraft belly space across the Qantas and Jetstar networks. Qantas Freight also operates 20 domestic freighters, including a core fleet of 12 dedicated freighters for major partner Australia Post, increasing to 16 during this Christmas period.

The domestic freighter fleet alone is expected to chart more than 11 million kilometres this year, the equivalent of about 745 trips from Hobart to the North Pole.

On the busiest days leading up to Christmas, across the global network, Qantas Freight will carry around one million kilograms of cargo per day, which is around 70 per cent more than its usual daily uplift.

In addition to Australia Post’s parcels, Australian-made gifts and international orders, Qantas Freight will carry some of the most important cargo needed to make holidays merry and bright, including:

Fresh produce such as mangoes, cherries, strawberries, and stone fruit
A range of seafood including live, fresh, and frozen lobsters, coral trout, mussels, abalone, and prawns
Beef, pork, and lamb
Fresh cut flowers to decorate tables
Milk, yoghurt, and cheese
Cars and F1 vehicles to fuel racing dreams
Critical supplies to keep Australia moving, from aircraft engines to rescue helicopters and medicines.

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