Australia Post charters freight aircraft to deliver backlog of parcels to WA in time for Christmas

Fears that Santa Claus may not be able to deliver gifts to WA have been eased, with a flight laden with more than 70,000 parcels touching down in Perth.

Australia Post was forced to charter the giant Atlas Air Boeing 747-400 freighter from Qantas, which landed on Monday night, to cope with a surge in online buying and limited capacity because of a reduction in flights from the Eastern States.

Prior to COVID, Qantas operated 16 Airbus A330s a day between Sydney, Melbourne and Perth but many of the flights have been replaced with smaller 737s, slashing cargo capacity.

Qantas has been using Atlas Air 747s for freight work since 2004 and recently extended the partnership to include a third aircraft.

Atlas Air provides the crews for the freighters , which typically operate from Australia to the US via China.