With most international and domestic flights grounded because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Melbourne Airport has been focused on attracting additional freighter services to support the movement of goods in and out of Victoria.
As part of the push, Qatar Airways Cargo has introduced dedicated freighter flights for the first time in Australia and will land a B-777F in Melbourne twice a week.
The first flight touched down at the airport earlier this month.
The air freight service is one of many cargo services Melbourne Airport has secured since coronavirus restrictions all but grounded passenger flights.
Melbourne Airport chief executive Lyell Strambi said there was an increase in demand for freight amid these challenging times.
“More people are purchasing goods online while in self-isolation and the need to move critical goods such as medical supplies and produce is absolutely vital,” said Mr Strambi.
“Now more than ever we need to attract freighters into Melbourne so we can support imports and exports for the state. We have obviously lost a lot of space in the belly-hold of commercial passenger flights, and we’re focused on bridging that gap to ensure the movement of goods continues at the right pace.”
Mr Strambi said efforts were yielding quick results.
“In the past couple of weeks we’ve added 31 more freight flights a week and welcomed 15 new cargo carriers, which is just extraordinary growth in such a small amount of time,” he said.
