The very big and the very small — Polar Air Cargo and Air Incheon enter interline agreement

Tiny Korean all-cargo start-up Air Incheon entered an interline agreement with Polar Air Cargo (a 51/49 joint venture of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings and DHL Express). Air Incheon operates a single 737-400F, while Polar operates seven 747-400Fs, two 747-8Fs, and two 767-300Fs (mostly for DHL, but also carrying general freight).

Air Incheon took redelivery of its first freighter, an AEI-converted 737-400F earlier this year. (The aircraft is shown at right receiving its water-cannon welcome, with an Atlas Air 747-400F parked just to the left.) It uses the freighter to serve Tokyo, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (in the Sakhalin Islands of Russia’s Far East), Ulan Bator, and Qingdao, but recently announced plans to add service to some of the smaller Chinese cities that have recently become manufacturing centers for Korean IT companies like Samsung.

That network expansion will probably not happen until Air Incheon takes redelivery of its second 737-400F (scheduled for late August), but in the meantime the carrier said that with the interline agreement with Polar now in place it could offer service to/from Hong Kong, Taipei, Los Angeles, and Cincinnati, with more destinations to come “in the next few months.”