Australia Post expands freighter fleet ahead of holiday e-commerce rush

Australia Post’s cargo arm has expanded its dedicated freighter capacity ahead of Black Friday and the peak Christmas shipping season, with Qantas Airways’ freight unit delivering the first of three additional Airbus A321 converted freighters to be operated for Australia Post. Two more A321 cargo aircraft are scheduled to enter the Qantas fleet by March. Together, the three planes will add capacity equivalent to roughly 20% to Qantas operated dedicated freighter services, enabling each flight to carry up to 20,000 Australia Post and StarTrack parcels, the companies said Monday. StarTrack is Australia Post’s wholly owned courier subsidiary. Qantas Freight has eight A321 cargo jets, with six supporting Australia Post; all are passenger aircraft reconfigured by Elbe Flugzeugwerke to carry containers on the main deck. The new aircraft bring Australia Post’s dedicated A321 total to nine. Under a 10-year contract extension signed last summer, Qantas Freight also operates two Airbus A330 freighters and reserves space on passenger aircraft.