Maersk outlines trans-Pacific air cargo routes

Maersk has disclosed more details on the launch of trans-Pacific services by its new cargo airline, Maersk Air Cargo. Maersk Air Cargo will fly between Hangzhou Airport (HGH) and Shenyang Taoxian Airport (SHE) in China, as well as Seoul Incheon Airport (ICN) and Chicago Rockford Airport (RFD) and Greenville-Spartanburg Airport (GSP) in the U.S. The routes will commence on Oct. 31, with twice weekly flights flown by the first of three newly-built 767-300 freighters that were purchased recently by Maersk Air Cargo. Services will be operated by Miami-based Amerijet with a fleet of three new, 50-tonne payload 766-300F freighters, which will allow the carrier to offer 900 tons of cargo capacity on 18 two-way flight sectors. “Next to the new scheduled Trans-Pacific flights, we also operate own controlled capacity from Europe into the US, Mexico, South Africa, and Singapore,” explained Michel Pozas Lucic, Maersk’s global head of Air and LCL. The ocean shipping giant said Maersk Air Cargo will be operating the first scheduled air cargo operation between the state of South Carolina and Asia. The corridor from GSP is expected to significantly increase access for trade between Asia, South Carolina, and the entire Southeast U.S., it added. Rate levels drop [caption id="attachment_57132120" align="alignright" width="303"] Photo/ Maersk Air Cargo[/caption] The latest market analysis, issued by forwarder Flexport earlier this week, highlighted that ex-North China demand was slow, especially for U.S. Midwest and East Coast destinations, and that rate levels have dropped and may continue trending down into November. Ex-South China, the market continues to be soft with rates maintaining at low levels while demand out of South Korea on trans-Pacific routes is also soft — even though the market has been stirred by some requests for large-scale ad hoc shipments, which caused rates to increase compared with last week, Flexport added. Provision has also been made for Maersk Air Cargo to establish a European hub at Billund Airport (BLL), which would handle flights to and from China. However, Maersk has not commented on when the flights will begin, nor on the reasons for its choice of the two Chinese airports. Earlier this month, Maersk announced the opening of a new airfreight gateway at O’Hare International Airport (ORD) , which will serve as an import and export consolidation center for the group’s freighter hub at RFD. The Chicago airfreight gateway, a “strategic location” between ORD and RFD, will offer “direct plane-side recovery with immediate transfers,” a spokesperson said at the time, adding that “70% of the U.S. is within an overnight truck drive enabling important shipments from Asia and Europe to speed to their destination when timing is essential.” Editor's Note: This story has been updated to include new information provided by Maersk on the date the trans-Pacific routes will begin. Join Air Cargo World for our next webinar, “Dangerous goods in focus: Shoring up air cargo logistics,” on Tuesday, Nov. 15, at 11 a.m. ET. Click here for more information and to register.

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