Lufthansa Ships 80 Tons of Fruit & Vegetables To United Kingdom

LUFTHANSA SHIPS 80 TONS OF FRUIT & VEGETABLES TO UK

Due to amid that gridlocked cross-Channel traffic could put British supplies at risk, on Wednesday, German airline Lufthansa sent a freight plane carrying fruit and vegetables to the UK. The plane’s cargo, 80 tons of fruit and vegetables, was destined for supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Coop and Aldi.

On Sunday evening, France halted UK travel and freight transport over fears that travelers could carry a new Coronavirus strain, said to be 70 percent more transmissible, to mainland Europe. Freight traffic remains disrupted as France requires truckers to get a negative test before crossing the Channel.

The German airline’s cargo arm regularly ships perishable goods such as fruit and vegetables to the UK, but half of its cargo tends to travel in the belly holds of passenger flights. However, travel bans EU countries imposed on the UK have left belly capacity —already down due to the pandemic— very limited, Lufthansa’s spokesperson said. “That’s the reason why we set up a special task force to find very quickly a solution to bring the perishables to the UK on time and in a good quality.”

According to http://politico.eu, Lufthansa may send more special cargo flights to the UK in the next days and is mulling a reguler connection (source: freshplaza.com in GCCA news)