Lufthansa Cargo announced that it will begin offering space on its converted A321 medium-haul freighters from March citing continued demand in e-commerce deliveries.

In a statement, it said with the start of operations on March 15, Lufthansa Cargo will gradually complement the global route network with Istanbul (IST), Tel Aviv (TLV), Malta (MLA), Tunis (TUN), Dublin (DUB) and Manchester (MAN) by operating these freighters.

In the summer schedule, the carrier said it also add flights to Cairo (CAI) starting March 29.

It added that the partially new stations in the freighter network will be served two to three times a week from and to Frankfurt (FRA) and that the A321F will make its first commercial flight from Frankfurt to Dublin on March 15.

"Lufthansa Cargo is thus responding to the continuing growth in demand from the e-commerce industry and can offer customers even more capacity and additional fast connections," it said.

Ashwin Bhat, chief commercial officer Lufthansa Cargo noted that the freighters will serve e-commerce in medium-haul destinations.

"With the added medium-haul freighters, we are opening up a whole new strategic business segment," Bhat said.

"In the future, the A321F will offer attractive same-day and e-commerce solutions within Europe and to selected medium-haul destinations, and the new network represents a major step towards the fast-growing e-commerce segment," he added.

The Lufthansa Cargo executive noted that on one hand, available capacity in the global airfreight market continues to be scarce and, at the same time, end consumers expect short delivery times for their ordered goods.

"With the medium-haul freighter, we can close this gap and continue to reliably and quickly provide our customers with the capacity they need," Bhat continued.

Lufthansa noted that the conversion of the first aircraft with the registration D-AEUC has already been completed. It said among other things, the floor has been reinforced accordingly, a roller system for moving cargo and a large cargo door were installed.

A total of 14 pallet and container positions in the maindeck and 10 in the lower deck are available to Lufthansa Cargo customers per aircraft resulting in a payload of 28 tons per aircraft.

It said the second medium-haul freighter is expected to enter service in late summer and both will be operated under a wet lease agreement by Lufthansa CityLine, each under Lufthansa Cargo flight numbers.

Lufthansa noted that the twin-engine Airbus A321 is one of the most versatile aircraft in its class: being able to carry containers in the main deck, it offers fast loading and unloading and therefore enables very efficient flight operations.