Panalpina deploys mega air freighter for heavy-lift China job

GLOBAL logistics giant Panalpina has flown hi-tech machinery from Hamburg to Shijiazhuang in Hebei province by Antonov AN 225 freighter operated by Ruslan International.

The heavy-lift cargo loading procedure in Hamburg was conducted with the help of a 160-ton-crane over a specially built ramp. Loading lasted well into the night before the plane took off for its journey to Shijiazhuang, with stop-overs in Minsk and Novosibirsk.

The freight comprised a laser welding machine manufactured by Ideal-Werk C+E Jungeblodt GmbH + Co KG, as well as a laser-beam welding machine from Hugo Miebach GmbH.

The 150-ton cargo could not be loaded into a Boeing freighter, and ocean freight was not an alternative either because the hi-tech equipment was urgently needed at destination, a Panalpina statement said.

This prompted the company to charter the Antonov AN 225 freighter, which is the biggest commercially used air cargo plane in the world. Powered by six engines, the aircraft is about 85 metres long, 18 metres high, has a wingspread of 88.4 metres and a 1,220-cubic metre cargo hold.

(Source: www.schednet.com)