China Southern starts Shanghai-Frankfurt run, restarts Chicago

CHINA Southern Airlines has announced the start of a new cargo service from Shanghai to Frankfurt and the re-start of the old Shanghai-Chicago cargo flights after an uptick in Sino-European/US volumes, reports Logistics Week.

The Shanghai-Urumqi-Frankfurt route, offering two flights per week, has already made its maiden flight and the Shanghai-Chicago service will shortly be offering four flights a week.

China Southern considered Frankfurt as an important gateway to western Europe with high market value for its convenient road, rail, water and air transportation facilities and network that covers the European continent.

The Shanghai-Chicago route represents nearly 30 per cent of the total cargo volume China Southern flies from Shanghai to the US.

China Southern is operating two Boeing 747 freighters, both deployed on Shanghai lines. The carrier has decided to shift its cargo business focus from Guangzhou to Shanghai and will build more to the Shanghai-based network into its cargo hub.

China Southern recently took delivery of two Boeing 777 freighters with a maximum capacity of 105.9 tonnes and a range of 9,630 kilometres. The two aircraft are the world's largest and longest-range twin-engine freighters with a lower operating cost and environmental impact than the four-engine B747 freighters. One 777 will be deployed on the Shanghai-Chicago run while the other will join the Shanghai-Frankfurt service, replacing the B747 next month.

Proportionally, China Southern's European cargo service in Shanghai is small. A China Southern source divulged that the carrier still has another four B777 freighters to receive next year, which will be deployed on European services while US services will use B747s.

China Southern applied in 2008 to launch the Shanghai-Urumqi-Frankfurt cargo service in October, with frequency of three flights a week, using B777 or B747 freighters.
 

Source: SchedNet