Lufthansa Cargo has announced 51 additional weekly cargo flights from Germany and Austria to Asia and back with passenger seats to be removed from several aircraft to accommodate shipments.

In a statement, Lufthansa Cargo said it is further expanding the currently particularly scarce airfreight capacity between Europe and Asia in cooperation with Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines.

At present, 14 flights a week with Boeing 777F wide-body freighters with a standard load capacity of around 103 tons operate between Frankfurt and the Chinese mainland.

From Easter onwards, 35 weekly flights with Lufthansa passenger aircraft will be added exclusively for cargo transport.

Since the cabin space of these aircraft can also be loaded with cargo, this results in an average capacity of about 30 tons each in practice.

Specifically, Lufthansa Cargo said there will be two daily connections from Frankfurt to Shanghai (PVG) and one daily connection to Beijing (PEK) with Airbus A330-300 aircraft. One Airbus A350-900 each will take off from Munich daily to Shanghai (PVG) and Beijing (PEK).

"In order to further increase the possible cargo volume, especially for the transport of comparatively light goods such as protective masks, parts of the cabin interior of initially four Lufthansa aircraft will be removed," it said in a statement.

In Austria, Austrian Airlines is expected to provide 16 flights a week from Vienna International Airport for the transport of cargo from Easter onwards.

Shanghai (PVG) will be served eight times a week, Beijing (PEK) five times, Penang (PEN) two times and Xiamen (XMN) once a week. Passenger jets of the type Boeing 767-300 and Boeing 777-200 will be used.