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Virgin Atlantic Cargo forecasts high demand for new Sydney-Hong Kong services

[ July 3, 2018   //   ]

With expectations of booming e-commerce volumes from China coupled with strong demand for northbound cargo capacity, Virgin Atlantic Cargo anticipates the new Virgin Australia daily Sydney-Hong Kong services to get off to a flying start. The service commenced July 2.
Virgin Atlantic Cargo is marketing the cargo space on Virgin Australia’s new Airbus A330 flights under the international long-haul sales and management agreement between the two airlines.
Following a positive start to 2018 for cargo volumes on Virgin Australia’s existing services from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Los Angeles and its Melbourne-Hong Kong route, Virgin Atlantic Cargo says customers will have additional capacity on such a prime route to and from Greater China.
“Sydney-Hong Kong is a route we know very well having operated it ourselves until mid-2014 so we are delighted to be back in this market and able to offer customers more choice on a route that generates high volumes in both directions,” said Dominic Kennedy, Managing Director of Virgin Atlantic Cargo. “The big shift in the market since 2014 is the significant rise of e-commerce volumes driven by the growth of online shopping in Australia and China. The launch of this important new route is coming at a prime time for air cargo capacity demand to and from Australia.”
Each A330 flight from Australia will offer 15-20 tonnes of cargo capacity, although Virgin Atlantic achieved a new record of 25,431 kilograms on a single flight from Melbourne earlier this year.
E-commerce shipments from China to Australia have boosted load factors from Hong Kong to Melbourne to close to 90% and Virgin Atlantic expects to see similar volumes into Sydney. From Australia, regular cargo will include courier traffic, perishables, milk powder and vitamins.

 

 

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