Iberia launches freighter services to Brussels and Nouakchott

Iberia is launching two new air cargo routes this month, a twice-weekly service between Madrid and Brussels, while the second involves the extension of the freight-only route between Madrid and Gran Canaria to Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, once a week.

The Madrid-Brussels cargo flights will operate on Tuesdays and Thursdays in leased B737-F freighters carrying up to 18,000 kg and 10 pallets. The flight comes under a commercial agreement between Iberia Cargo and Adelantex for the import of perishable goods, mainly fruits and vegetables, from Latin America, using Iberia’s “Cool & Fast” infrastructure. Iberia Cargo expects to carry some 1,100 tonnes per year on this route between the capital cities of Spain and Belgium.

After years of studying the African air cargo market, Iberia Cargo has added Nouakchott in Mauritania to its network of destinations. On Sundays the freighter service between Madrid and Gran Canaria will be extended to the Northwest African city, and in the course of 2011 Iberia’s cargo unit expects to carry some 400 tonnes of freight, mainly fresh fish, on this leg of the route. Working jointly with the Iberia group’s Cacesa subsidiary, it will also use leased B737-Fs on this route.

The two new routes will expand Iberia annual freighter capacity this year by some 21% to 60,000 tonnes.

Last year Iberia Cargo carried a total of 264,402 tonnes of freight, of which freighter aircraft were used for nearly 20,138 tonnes, an increase of 8% from the previous year. In addition to the newly launched routes, it offers five weekly flight between Madrid and Gran Canaria with B757-F aircraft, four weekly frequencies between to the airports of Madrid-Barajas and Los Rodeos in Tenerife, in B737-F aircraft, five flights between Madrid and Frankfurt with B757-F aircraft, and one weekly flight from the Spanish capital to the Malpensa airport in Milan with a B-737-F aircraft.