Spanish flag carrier Iberia has finally joined the long list of airlines to convert passenger aircraft into freighters.
The first A330 convert, undertaken in-house, flew from LA to Madrid this week. Four weekly cargo flights between the two cities are now scheduled for this month.
In the early months of the pandemic, the airline’s flights were confined purely to repatriations.
Iberia now joins operators such as Lufthansa, KLM, SWISS, Ethiopian, Qantas, Air Canada, Austrian Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines proceeded to modify their planes to transport cargo on passenger seats or even by removing passenger seats.
In May, World of Aviation reported how Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr even termed turning passenger planes into freighters as “preighters”.
Iberia’s sales chief María Jesús López Solás said, “We’re expecting an increase in air freight demand in coming months and this in an opportunity we should try to seize.
“Under today’s circumstances we must adapt better than ever to market demands, and this operation will help diversify our income streams while keeping our staff active.”
The business also revealed the retrofit was undertaken by offshoot Iberia MRO and cargo will be held in place with netting fastened to floor rails where the seats were anchored. The new configuration yields an additional carrying capacity of up to 105 square metres or 18,000 kilograms of cargo.
