Top 5 most memorable air cargo partnerships announced in 2018

Delta + Korean

Type of relationship: JV
Date signed: July 17
Description: Sharing of belly capacity and facilities

In July, the same month that the United States imposed a 25 percent tariff on Chinese goods, Delta Cargo and Korean Air expanded their longtime relationship to share cargo capacity on trans-Pacific routes.

Shawn Cole, vice president of Delta Cargo, said the partnership “means a host of new destinations with commercial and logistics solutions across Asia and North America for these important markets,” by allowing Korean Air to utilize Delta’s extensive North American network, and Delta to access Korean’s destinations in the Far East.

The deal generated some excitement in the industry due to concern amongst forwarders about availability of trans-Pacific capacity at the time, which wasn’t helped by the noteworthy grounding of major trans-Pacific carrier NCA’s freighter fleet of 747s in June.