The air freight offering between Europe and Australia is expanding thanks to a three-year agreement reached by Qantas Freight and Global GSA Group. The deal provides for the joint development of a pan-European network to boost cargo capacity from two major cargo hubs: Rome Fiumicino and Paris Charles de Gaulle. This collaboration aims to capture the growing demand for fast and reliable shipping between European markets and Oceania, a region playing an increasingly important role in the global economy, especially with the expansion of international e-commerce. The context is favourable: Qantas is currently the only Australian airline offering direct flights to Europe and is preparing to further expand its services.
At the heart of the agreement are the direct services operated by Qantas using Boeing 787-9 aircraft, capable of carrying up to 45 tonnes of cargo per flight. From Paris, Qantas offers three weekly frequencies throughout the year—on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays—departing from Charles de Gaulle at 10:25 and arriving in Perth at 08:45 the following day. The flight then continues at 10:30 to Sydney, landing at 16:25 the same afternoon.
The seasonal service from Rome Fiumicino will begin on 15 June 2025 and operate until 3 October, with three weekly flights—on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays—on the Rome–Perth–Sydney route (QF6). But the strength of the collaboration also lies in the combination of direct flights and interline connections. Global GSA Group, with a commercial network present in 25 European countries, will contribute its expertise and extensive reach to attract cargo traffic from areas not directly served by Qantas. This integrated approach will significantly expand the geographical reach of the service, making it attractive to shippers across Central and Eastern Europe.
On the other side of the globe, from Perth and Sydney, Qantas offers domestic connections to Melbourne, Brisbane and other Australian destinations, as well as international routes to Auckland, Nouméa and other locations across the Pacific region. This makes the new air corridor a genuine logistics bridge to the whole of Oceania.
The agreement was formalised by Aytekin Saray, chief executive officer of Global GSA Group, and Mallory Logan, head of global sales at Qantas Freight, and was announced on 5 June 2025. “We are ready to support the expansion of Qantas’s cargo operations from Europe, bringing to the table our reach and operational flexibility,” said Saray. Igor Kwiatkowski, executive manager of Qantas Freight, also emphasised the value of the partnership: “With Global GSA Group, we can make our European cargo offering more efficient and widespread, improving access to our capacity to meet global demand, particularly in the e-commerce sector.”
