Qantas has announced new freight schedules between Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand to support new and growing customer demand.

There are now three weekly services operating between Australia and Hong Kong using widebody A332 passenger-to-freight (P2F) aircraft.

Qantas Freight said two of these services fly from Sydney to Hong Kong every Wednesday and Sunday, and, for the first time, it is offering a Perth-Hong Kong-Sydney service departing Australia each Friday to accommodate shipments from Western Australia.

Customer options also increased with five weekly return services operating from Sydney to Christchurch via Auckland from late August.

Qantas said four of these services are operated by the fuel-efficient A321P2F, including a new weekend service. This is in addition to the weekly A332P2F widebody that flies every Thursday to support larger cargo shipments.

"From September 10, 2024, Melbourne will be added to one of the weekly trans-Tasman freighter services to open up capacity from southern states into New Zealand," the announcement said.

"Adding the A321P2F to the trans-Tasman route allows Qantas Freight to expand the A330 freighter network north to Asia," it added.

The new schedule complements the existing capacity available for passenger services and follows the recent addition of a sixth A321P2F aircraft to the dedicated Qantas Freight fleet.

Freighter demand to Asia on the rise

"Demand for freight services is rising, particularly in Asia, and we're looking at several options to extend the A330 freighter schedule to more places in Asia as we want to meet that need now and into the future," said Igor Kwiatkowski, executive manager Qantas Freight.

"These changes give freight customers in Australia, New Zealand and Asia more opportunity through greater frequency of services and the enhanced capacity of our Airbus fleet," he added.