MASKargo has operated an all-cargo flight to transport e-commerce goods from Kuala Lumpur to Heathrow using an A380, the biggest aircraft in its fleet.

The airline said this is the first time that an A380 —  the largest commercial passenger plane in the world — was used for an all-cargo service.

MASKargo said the flight carried 26 tonnes of cargo made up of mostly e-commerce goods originating from Guangzhou, in China.

“This is definitely an innovative and ‘beyond-the-box approach’ on our part; as no other Airbus A380 equipped airline that we know, has done this,” said lbrahim Mohamed Salleh, MASkargo’s chief executive.

“Our freighters’ flying hours have been utilised to the maximum allowable due to humanitarian Covid-19 relief efforts and other business demands.

“When the freighters can no longer cope, we initially innovated via the passenger-to-cargo (P2C) project where we use our A330 passenger fleet to carry cargo.

With the volume of cargo increasing coupled with lesser cargo capacity into Heathrow, MASKargo said it had no choice but to utilise the biggest aircraft in the Malaysia Airlines fleet to meet its customers’ expectations.

The originally scheduled A350, it noted, could not cater for the volume of cargo that the airline needs to transport.

On the return flight, MASKargo said the aircraft was filled with mostly pharmaceutical products and mail.

“I am ecstatic that the A380 P2C rotation is a success. lt took a lot of coordination between ourselves in Kuala Lumpur, our Guangzhou office led by Oscar Chien and our London office, headed by Anita Sehgal," said Ooi Cheng Heong, MASkargo’s regional senior manager.