Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane International) has commenced cargo operations as of last week Australian Aviation has reported. The carrier launched its own in-house freight unit in July last year following the termination of a previous contract with Toll Aviation (Brisbane Archerfield).

As such, with a five-year TNT Express logistics deal in hand, Virgin Australia has now contracted CV-580(F), VH-PDW (cn 86), from Skyforce Aviation (Sydney Bankstown) to ply routes up and down Australia’s east coast and to Adelaide International while a B737-300(F), ZK-TLE (msn 24834), has been contracted from New Zealand's Airwork Flight Operations (AWK, Auckland International) to service the Perth International-Melbourne Airport market. The latter will operate until next month when it will be switched out for another machine also sourced from Airwork.

A BAe 146-200(QT), VH-SIF (cn E2119), also chartered from Skyforce, has also already started operating with a second of the type due to arrive in the next couple of months.