Hong Kong Airlines operated a number of special charter flights from China to Australia in recent months to transport essential medical supplies and equipment to the Southwest Pacific region.
In addition to uplifting freight in the cargo belly of its Airbus A330-300 aircraft, the cabin space was also utilised, with boxes loaded and securely tied down on more than 200 seats.
“There’s a lot of manual labour involved in moving and securing cargo boxes on seats. Our operational staff have shown great coordination and teamwork, smoothing out the laborious process with each cabin cargo flight,” says Richard Tan, Director of Ground Operations.
Uploading cabin cargo takes around two hours, twice the time compared to uplifting cargo in the aircraft belly. In compliance with regulations, each seat in the Economy Class cabin is also wrapped with protective material beforehand.
As always, safety comes first at Hong Kong Airlines. Loading masters are assigned on site to supervise the loading procedure from start to end. Six cabin crew are also positioned on the flight to provide immediate support in case of cabin emergency.