QANTAS Freight volumes for the Christmas period are expected to be up 5 per cent compared to last year as online shopping continues to boom.

The cargo division of Australian airline Qantas said earlier in December that it anticipated delivering more than 50,000 tonnes of international and domestic freight during the busy festive peak.

Qantas Freight had planned to fly around 550 additional hours across the domestic network in November and December, equivalent to 23 days of 24-hour flying, writes London's Air Cargo News.

Additional days of operation across the fleet were expected to add 3,000 tonnes of domestic capacity, the equivalent of flying 12,000 fully-grown reindeer to cities and regional ports around Australia.

Alongside mail, Australian-made gifts and international orders, packages during the Christmas peak were predicted to include seafood, fresh produce and flowers. But there will also be demand as usual for critical supplies such as medicines, cars and Formula 1 vehicles, aircraft engines and rescue helicopters.

Qantas Freight carries cargo around the world with five international freighters and in passenger aircraft belly space across the Qantas and Jetstar networks.

Qantas Freight also operates 20 domestic freighters, including a core fleet of 12 dedicated freighters for major partner Australia Post, increasing to 16 during this Christmas period.

The domestic freighter fleet alone is expected to chart more than 11 million km this year, the equivalent of about 745 trips from Hobart to the North Pole.

On the busiest days leading up to Christmas, across the global network, Qantas Freight will carry around 1 million kilogrammes of cargo per day, which is around 70 per cent more than its usual daily uplift.

To celebrate the festive season, one of the six Qantas Freight A321 freighters was gift wrapped in a new 'Santa's Freight' livery.