Lufthansa Cargo Expands Fleet with Addition of Third A321 Freighter

Lufthansa Cargo has added its third Airbus A321 freighter as it looks to expand its e-commerce capabilities.

The aircraft (D-AEUI) has been named Dia dhuit Ireland and joins the existing freighters Merhaba Türkiye and Hello Europe.

The first commercial flight took place on a routing of Malta-Milan.

A fourth A321 is due to join the fleet later this year and the airline has not ruled out adding more aircraft to its intra-European e-commerce operation in the future.

The aircraft conversion took place in Singapore and was carried out by EFW.

The A321 converted freighter offers 14 pallet and containers positions in the maindeck and 10 in the lower deck. The aircraft has a payload of 28 tons and a range of 3,500 km.

Lufthansa Cargo head of sales and handling for Italy & Malta Antonio Di Martino said: “This route [Malta-Milan] is one of our shortest freighter routes, but of great value for Malta as it opens up new markets to the small island.

“After two months of frequencies, we are pleased with the development and see a lot of vulnerable and dangerous goods, but also live animals on this routing. We are glad our A321F fleet is getting stronger with an additional aircraft.”

The carrier launched its intra-European freighter operation in March 2022.