Virgin Atlantic Is Wet-Leasing A Cargo Airbus A321 For Short-Haul Flights

Virgin Atlantic has announced its first foray into operating dedicated freighter aircraft. The airline has agreed to a deal with UK-based charter specialist Titan Airways to lease a single Airbus A321 freighter aircraft to operate between London and Brussels this coming summer.

The first freighter for Virgin

Virgin Atlantic (Virgin) is dipping its toes into the dedicated freighter market for the first time in its 38-year history. Virgin has signed an agreement with London-Stansted-based Titan Airways for the wet lease of a single Airbus A321 freighter to operate between London and Brussels. The aircraft will arrive with Virgin by the end of this month and continue operating until the end of October.

Virgin (through its freight subsidiary Virgin Atlantic Cargo) has been operating a near-daily service to Brussels throughout the pandemic, utilizing surplus passenger aircraft, which, along with usable cabin space, also offer copious underfloor freight capacity. The carrier has been picking up pharmaceuticals, perishables, and e-commerce items in Brussels for transportation to the UK and onwards on the Virgin network to the United States.

Brussels is the sole remaining cargo-only destination offered by Virgin Atlantic, which in essence turned itself entirely over to freight during the pandemic. The airline operated its first freight-only flight in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated across the globe, using its passenger aircraft to carry freight both in the passenger cabin and in the belly cargo hold.

Over the past couple of years, the airline has been involved in bringing vital PPE equipment to the UK from China for healthcare workers and has carried millions of tones of cargo across its existing routes (where low passenger numbers allowed for additional cargo payload to be transported) and more recently has begun a twice-weekly cargo-only service between London and Frankfurt.

Virgin ties up with lease-specialist Titan Airways

Virgin will be leasing one of two Airbus A321 freighters that Titan Airways currently operates. However, Titan has a third aircraft currently being converted from a passenger to a freighter variant (P2F) in Singapore. The existing pair of P2F variants currently in operation both previously served with Thomas Cook Airlines in the UK before that airline failed in 2019.

According to planespotters.net, the two aircraft operated by Titan are G-NIKO (MSN 1250) which is 21.9 years old, alongside sistership 9H-ZTB (MSN1238), which is 22 years old. The latter is operated by Titan's Maltese subsidiary, Titan Airways Malta.

Titan Airways was the first operator of the Airbus A321P2F in May 2021 when it received G-NIKO from lessor BBAM having been previously converted in Singapore-Seletar in March 2021. With the two A321P2Fs, Titan operates eight A321s in total, including the recently re-delivered G-GBNI (MSN10238), which functions as a VIP transport aircraft on behalf of the UK Government.

Virgin's A321F will be a one-off

Despite the excitement this latest news might cause, Virgin is keen to clarify that this is not the start of a permanent move into operating dedicated freighter aircraft. The new venture offers the benefits of continuing a lucrative cargo-only route in conjunction with loyal partners - relationships that have developed over the pandemic.

The lease arrangement allows Virgin's wide-bodied passenger jets to return to the mainline fleet. Virgin is now flying a busy program to both the United States and the Asian sub-continent. Lastly, it allows for valuable slot pairs held by the carrier at its London-Heathrow base, which are currently not being used, to be protected.

Additionally, during the 2022 northern summer, the EU is allowing a weakened ‘use it or lose it’ slot rule for cargo flights. A ratio of 70:30 is to be applied to freight-only operations (by which airlines must use their allocated slots at least 70% of the season). But this dispensation is unlikely to be extended to the forthcoming winter 2022/23 winter season. Passenger flights are to remain at 80:20 throughout this period.

Speaking with theloadstar.com, Phil Wardlaw, Managing Director, Virgin Atlantic Cargo, has stated that this agreement with Titan Airways is not a permanent move into the operation of dedicated freighters by the leisure-focused passenger carrier. Mr Wardlaw said,

“I don’t think we’ll do freighters long-term. Perhaps we’ll look at partnerships. But we are predominantly a passenger airline. We are using the A321 primarily to Brussels, although we may look to use it on other routes as well."

The timing and market conditions are perfect

Whilst this new venture may raise some eyebrows in the industry, Virgin is convinced that the time is right to undertake such an innovative step. A mixture of challenges on EU-UK freight routes, including the long-running debacle with major cross-channel ferry operator P&O Ferries, has strengthened demand on the route so much that Virgin's confidence is robust enough to lease a dedicated aircraft.

Alongside the commercial dynamics of maintaining the route, Mr Wardlaw acknowledges that there were also slot portfolio dynamics. Due to the ongoing conflict, being forced to avoid overflying Russian and Ukrainian airspace has led to more extended transit times on Virgin’s passenger flights to the subcontinent, impacting aircraft and crew availability.

Additionally, Virgin Atlantic has not been immune from the chronic staff shortages seen across the airline industry worldwide as the COVID-19 pandemic recedes. Being able to use the Heathrow slots now as the airline recover means that they will be continued to be available to the airline in the future, rather than being lost and going back into the system to be re-allocated.