time:matters expands Sameday Air network to China

Lufthansa Cargo’s time-critical logistics subsidiary time:matters has expanded its Sameday Air network into China for the first time with the addition of stations in Beijing (PEK), Chengdu (CTU), Guangzhou (CAN), Nanjing (NKG), Qingdao (TAO), Shanghai (PVG) and Shenyang (SHE). Customers with urgent shipments will now have access to 157 weekly direct flights between Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and these key Chinese destinations.

According to time:matters, shipments will be collected and cleared through customs on the same day. The Chinese stations will offer handling times as short as one-and-a-half hours for export shipments and two hours for import shipments. The European hubs offer transit times of as little as one hour.

“We are now connecting key Chinese marketplaces with large business hubs in Europe and the U.S. via our Sameday Air network,” said Lars Krosch, COO of time:matters. “We plan to integrate further Asian stations, in keeping with our long-term goal of providing our customers with a global and highly efficient Sameday Air network.”

While time:matters has had a presence in Shanghai for 13 years, the company established time:matters Shanghai International Freight Forwarding Ltd. on June 1 of this year to support customers locally, providing services such as booking assistance, issuing air waybills and local invoicing. An additional Chinese website has been developed to provide information on the transport solutions available for time-critical and sensitive shipments.

“The expansion into the Chinese market and foundation of a local subsidiary in Shanghai are key elements of our internationalization strategy,” said Alexander Kohnen, CEO of time:matters. “This will allow us to meet specific needs and requirements of our global customer base and to extend our global quality promise as well as our product range.”

time:matters is targeting the automotive, high-tech, semiconductor, med-tech, machinery and components sectors. Customers can book their own shipments via an online portal, track their progress and have guaranteed capacity access for goods weighing up to 200 kg.

Kohnen told Air Cargo World last month that time:matters was planning to open around ten stations in the Asia-Pacific region overall, and that in addition to a Europe-China network, the company also has plans to expand to cover the intra-Asia and trans-Pacific markets.