Virgin Atlantic will launch a twice-weekly, scheduled cargo-only service on its passenger-freighter aircraft between London Heathrow (LHR) and Frankfurt (FRA) starting April 25.
It is set to operate freighter flights between London and Frankfurt from Sunday. The twice-a-week flights will depart from London Heathrow, with a Boeing 787 completing the short hop to Frankfurt. It won’t be the first time a British Dreamliner has been seen in Germany’s aviation capital over the past year.
On Tuesdays and Sundays, the aircraft will complete the short hop from London Heathrow to Frankfurt and back. Although, this won’t be an ordinary service. Instead, the aircraft will solely be filled with cargo, while passengers will be non-existent.
There have been some exciting flights at Frankfurt since the start of the pandemic. Right away, interesting arrivals were seen in the form of Air New Zealand Boeing 777s. In the months since, Dreamliners from Bamboo Airways and Qantas have joined these. However, another airline is set to start flying the Dreamliner to Frankfurt.
The new service, operated on the U.K.-based carrier’s 787 aircraft with up to 35 tonnes of cargo capacity and would offer same-day connections to and from the U.S.
According to a company release, Virgin’s 787 Dreamliners will head to Cargo City South upon arrival, where Swissport will handle the flights. Space onboard the service is being sold by a company called Kales Airline Services.
Frankfurt Airport is a massive hub for cargo within Europe. This has become especially true due to the high demand for cargo transportation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the airport sees many flights to and from China each day dedicated to shifting cargo worldwide.
However, it is not just cargo to and from China that is handled at the hub. Increasingly, Frankfurt has played a role in getting goods to and from the UK. Last year British Airways substituted the Airbus A320 family with the Boeing 787 on the Frankfurt route and many others several times for the sole purpose of utilizing its cargo capacity.
