Turkish Cargo adds second Nigeria service to Kano

In what appears to be an almost monthly occurrence, Turkish Cargo, one of the world’s fastest-growing freight operations, is expanding yet again – this time in West Africa.

Starting July 4, the carrier is launching weekly cargo flights to Kano, Nigeria, also touching down in Dakar, Senegal. The added Dakar flight will double the number of weekly flights to Africa’s westernmost city to two.

The carrier already has scheduled service to the Nigerian capital, Lagos, and the Kano service is a bid to capture leather exports destined for European markets. Located in the northern part of the country, Kano is located on historical trade routes that the city is trying to revive.

Turkish Cargo also launched scheduled freighter flights to Paris and São Paulo in late June.

The carrier’s new chief cargo officer, Turhan Ozen, joined the company this year after spending the previous eight years at CEVA Logistics. Ozen told Air Cargo World that he hopes to see Turkish Cargo among the top five cargo carriers globally in the next five years, in part by adding more freighter capacity, and also by leveraging the carrier’s extensive bellyhold capacity that serves 120 countries and more than 300 destinations, which he said, “gives us a volume and capability that we can exploit.”