IAG Cargo is to increase its services into the US from 8 November, as the country reopens to fully vaccinated passengers from around the world. The new schedule will service 21 destinations across the US.
From 8 November, IAG Cargo will increase flights into New York, Austin, Miami, Philadelphia and Los Angeles among other destinations. It will restarts direct service into Newark and plans to restart services to Baltimore, Orlando, Tampa and Las Vegas from 15 November.
The move coincides with peak season for cargo with Black Friday, Thanksgiving and Christmas all taking place within the next few weeks. The business is also focused on providing additional capacity on priority routes – adding wide-body aircraft to short haul European routes that feed into its main hubs at London-Heathrow, Madrid-Barajas and Dublin.
Chief commercial officer John Cheetham said: “We are delighted to see the US open up once again to passengers, and the impact this will have on cargo capacity; the full reopening of the transatlantic travel corridor is a pivotal moment. With peak season in full swing, one of our busiest trading lanes is linking US, Europe and UK – this additional capacity will be of great benefit to so many of our customers.”
He added: “IAG Cargo is now serving 21 US destinations and additionally, we’ve added wide-body aircraft within Europe that feeds into our main hubs and onwards to the US. For example, we’ve added the A380 for peak season to service London and Frankfurt – an important hub for the automotive industry.”
Services to a number of US destinations also restarted at Manchester. The first stateside bound flights were Virgin Atlantic services to Orlando and New York. Routes to Atlanta and Houston will also return over the coming weeks and months.
In Germany, Lufthansa also resumed flights between Munich and Miami for the first since March 2020 and will operate three times a week in the winter flight schedule.
Delta Air Lines resumes four weekly flights to Atlanta on 14 December, with American Airlines operating daily flights to Charlotte from 17 December. This will return the German airport to pre-pandemic levels in terms of the number of destinations in the US and Canada.