Beginning 12th September, Virgin Atlantic Cargo is to start flights between London Heathrow and Milan twice a week.

The flights on Thursdays and Saturdays are to be with an Airbus A350 and a Boeing 787, carrying up to 50 tonnes of cargo per flight.

Customers in the US will be able to send their freight from New York via London to Milan and these will be delivered the next day.

Prior to the pandemic, Milan Malpensa Airport handled more than 545,000 tonnes of cargo in 2019.

“Since our first cargo-only flight on 22nd March, we’ve operated over 1,800 of these services, helping our customers deliver nearly 50 million kilos of cargo and, in the process, provided a valuable source of revenue for Virgin Atlantic as we continue our recovery programme. We have chosen Milan as  our latest cargo-only route because the profile of business fits so well with our UK and US network, and we’re very much looking forward to being able to grow our working relationships with customers in Italy,” commented Dominic Kennedy, Managing Director of Virgin Atlantic Cargo.

Virgin Atlantic Cargo can offer cargo capacity to Atlanta, Barbados, Brussels, Chicago, Delhi, Dublin, Johannesburg, Lagos, Miami, Mumbai, New York JFK, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tel Aviv, as well as offering an extensive on-forwarding network.

Carlo Gonzata, Managing Director of ADP in Italy, said: “Starting twice-weekly frequencies to Malpensa shows Virgin Atlantic Cargo’s support of the Italian market. Malpensa Airport is a prime hub for export and import trade and as Italy continues to rise from the pandemic, it is especially welcome news for customers that they can now access direct capacity to and from the UK with Virgin Atlantic as well as fast connections to major US cities. Both markets provide Italy’s business community with very important trade opportunities.”