Budget carrier SpiceJet became the first Indian airline to operate the long-haul, non-stop cargo flight from Amsterdam to Mumbai using its wide-body aircraft – Airbus A340 on Saturday. The same aircraft will operate from Mumbai to Khartoum in Sudan on Sunday.
With this, the airline also becomes the first to operate non-stop cargo services from Europe on a dedicated freighter.
Adding the Netherlands to its international cargo network, SpiceJet carried 13 tonnes of cargo supplies to Mumbai on Saturday. The flight departed from the Dutch capital at 10.50 pm (local time) on Friday, August 21, and landed in Mumbai at 10.54 AM (local time) on Saturday.
An airline official said that the A340 freighter that is set to take off from Mumbai to Khartoum will be carrying 40 tonnes of cargo. This will be SpiceJet’s first non-stop flight to Africa as the low-cost carrier has earlier flown to Sudan via Ras Al-Khaimah.
Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director of SpiceJet said, “We successfully operated our first wide-body long-haul flight from Europe. The induction of our first Airbus A340 cargo aircraft has significantly enhanced our operational capability and will allow us to operate non-stop cargo services across the globe to destinations in Europe, Africa and CIS countries.”
The airline has operated over 5764 cargo flights and transported over 31,800 tonnes of cargo, which according to the airline, is more than double of all domestic airlines combined. These flights carried medicines, medical equipment, fruits and vegetables across India and the world since March 25.
