With Christmas day now two weeks away, Qantas Freight has unveiled a specially decorated ‘Santa’s Freight’ aircraft as it prepares to deliver more than 50,000 tonnes of international and domestic freight for the busy festive season.

This year, Qantas expects freight volumes for the Christmas period to be up five percent compared to last year, as online shopping continues to boom.

Qantas Freight says it is boosting its operation to get gifts under trees and ingredients on tables in time for Christmas, with the freighter fleet expected to fly approximately 550 additional hours across the domestic network over the festive period, equivalent to 23 days of 24-hour flying.

Additional days of operation across the fleet will add 3000 tonnes of domestic capacity, the equivalent of flying 12,000 fully-grown reindeer to cities and regional ports around Australia.

To get into the festive spirit, one of the six Qantas Freight A321 freighters has been gift wrapped in a new ‘Santa’s Freight’ livery.

The merry decoration heralds the tonnes of packages, mail and popular Australian food such as seafood, seasonal produce, and even Christmas puddings carried on Qantas Freight during the Christmas peak.

Igor Kwiatkowski, Executive Manager, Qantas Freight said the lead up to Christmas is one of the busiest and most critical times for the airline’s freight operations.

“While Santa and his elves have been preparing to fly gifts for kids around the world, Qantas Freight has been busy getting our fleet of freight sleighs ready for the Christmas peak,” Mr Kwiatkowski said.

“We’ve increased flying hours, and we’ll have more support, extra capacity, and our very own ‘Santa’s Freight’ aircraft to deliver more than 50 million kilos of freight this Christmas.

“We’ll be spending the next few weeks flying gifts, cards, and perishables like mangoes and prawns across the country, and the world, and we’re delighted to play this important role for what is a really special time for families.”

Qantas Freight carries cargo internationally with five international freighters and in passenger aircraft belly space across the Qantas and Jetstar networks. 

Qantas Freight also operates 20 domestic freighters, including a core fleet of 12 dedicated freighters for major partner Australia Post, increasing to 16 during this Christmas period.

Qantas said the domestic freighter fleet alone is expected to chart more than 11 million kilometers this year, the equivalent of about 745 trips from Hobart to the North Pole.

On the busiest days leading up to Christmas, across the global network, Qantas Freight will carry around 1 million kilograms of cargo per day, approximately 70 per cent more than its usual daily uplift, the airline said.