Virgin launches mid-week cargo service to Melbourne

Virgin Atlantic Cargo has introduced a second weekly MD-11 freighter service to Melbourne from London's Heathrow airport.

The mid-week departure service, which started last Wednesday, operates jointly with Malaysia Airlines, and offers freight forwarders cargo capacity to Dubai and Kuala Lumpur en route to Melbourne.

It will complement the airlines' Saturday freighter service on the same route.

Virgin launched its freighter operations jointly with Malaysia Airlines last October, with all flights being routed via Kuala Lumpur.

Virgin's first dedicated freighter operation was a weekly service on Wednesdays to Osaka's Kansai airport in Japan. However, the airline was forced to change the route to Melbourne due to the severe downturn in Japan's economy, which has seen demand for cargo capacity decline drastically this year.

David Woodward, Virgin's general manager, commercial, said: 'As a result of the economic crisis in Asia and, specifically, the Japanese economy, we have had to reconsider the position, and the obvious decision was to switch the Wednesday service to Melbourne which since operating to this destination has been highly successful.' Virgin, established in 1984 by Richard Branson, is Britain's second-largest long-haul carrier.