To do its part in addressing the covid-19 crisis, Lufthansa is currently operating two daily flights carrying protective equipment from China to Munich Airport with Airbus A350 long-range jetliners.

Under normal circumstances, Lufthansa’s A350 fleet carries passengers to intercontinental destinations in North and South America and in Asia. The special daily cargo flights from Beijing and Shanghai are mainly loaded with masks urgently needed in the Bavarian capital. Employees of Munich Airport’s ground handling subsidiary AeroGround are unloading the arriving aircraft.

The cargo is then transported to its final destinations by freight forwarding companies contracted by the federal government. The airline is operating the cargo flights to Munich with four Airbus A350 passenger aircraft and is flying similar missions with six A330 planes based in Frankfurt.

With these 10 passenger airliners, it has created additional airfreight capacity and expanded the Lufthansa Cargo fleet, which has 17 freight-only aircraft. The daily cargo flights with the passenger jets are expected to continue at least until mid-May.