The first Iberia Airbus A330 aircraft converted into a freighter arrived in Los Angeles from Madrid. Up to four weekly cargo flights between the two cities are scheduled for this month of November, inaugurating specifically cargo operations at Iberia.
In the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic, Iberia's flight operations were limited almost exclusively to repatriation flights and flights with emergency medical supplies.
Maria Jesús López Solás, head of sales at Iberia, said: “We expect an increase in air freight demand in the coming months and this is an opportunity that we should try to take advantage of. In today's circumstances, we must adapt better than ever to market demands, and this operation will help to diversify our revenue streams while keeping our team active.”
IAG Cargo, the cargo division of the International Airlines Group (IAG), will service these flights. At the onset of the pandemic, IAG Cargo quickly developed solutions tailored to its customers' cargo needs, including cargo-only flights on enger aircraft and establishing a new charter team.
With an extensive network, IAG Cargo offers its services on more than 500 aircraft, to more than 350 destinations.
This first Airbus A330 converted into a freighter was already being inspected in the Iberia maintenance hangar in Madrid, in La Muñoza, where all the seats were removed and places for crew rest, along with separation s.
The carpet has been reinstalled with lights indicating the 33 load positions. The cargo will be held in place with a net attached to the floor rails where the seats have been anchored. This configuration produces additional load capacity of up to 105 m³ or 18.000 kg of load.
This cabin conversion was carried out by Iberia MRO, which has a long experience in aircraft retrofit operations and changing cabin configurations. They followed Airbus guidelines and the cabin conversion was approved by the Spanish Air Safety Agency, AESA.
