Virgin Atlantic Cargo hit milestone moment with 500th cargo-only departure from Brussels

_{Posted: 1st December, 2021}

On Sunday 28^th November, Virgin Atlantic Cargo operated our 500^th cargo-only flight departure from Brussels Airport, following its first take off in June 2020. 

Virgin Atlantic Cargo’s Regional Sales Manager – International, Holly Tongue, offers the inside scoop:

“The Brussels operation took off in response to a decline in cargo capacity across mainland Europe following COVID-19 travel restrictions. With the support of colleagues at our GSA, Kales. led by Kim Ornelis, we were able to understand and respond to the demand for air cargo capacity departing mainland Europe at the time.

The new venture initially saw a twice-weekly service to London Heathrow but in response to increasing demand, it wasn’t long before we doubled capacity to four-times weekly, and then to daily.  Throughout Summer 2020, in addition to the daily Brussels – Heathrow services, we were also operating weekly flights to both Atlanta and Los Angeles in the USA, and in October 2021 demand grew to such a level that we operated 10 flights per week on the Heathrow route alone.

We have now carried more than 11,000 AWBs and more than 10,000 tonnes of cargo from across Central Europe, since the route began in 2020, with every aircraft type in the Virgin Atlantic fleet having now visited Brussels; including Airbus A330-300s, A350-1000s, and the Boeing B787-9 fleet.

With no two days the same, we have uplifted a variety of products from Brussels, including vital COVID-19 shipments of ventilators for hospitals and raw materials for the creation of vaccines, to spare parts, luxury fashion items, works of art and even some of Belgium’s favourite exports, such as chocolate and beer to fans across the network.

Our heaviest departure from Brussels so far exceeded 44 tonnes and at times we have managed to get aircraft unloaded and loaded again in under 60mins, an incredible feat for widebody aircraft.”