The Russian carrier commenced weekly line-haul services between Hanover in Northern Germany and the Chinese capital with stopovers in Moscow Sheremetyevo airport. Deployed weekly, the inaugural flight on 10 March saw the freighter was filled with automotive parts stemming from various producers in and around Hanover.
The flights are conducted on behalf of logistics giant Kuehne + Nagel that purchased the entire capacity of the aircraft. “Our market studies proved that there is enough demand for these transports by local and regional producers so in accord with AirBridgeCargo we gave them a go,” stated Thomas Eschrich, K+N’s head of air freight Northern Germany. He emphasised
that Hanover, in contrast to Frankfurt where night flights are entirely banned since Fall 2011 is offering 24/7 ops, an accessibility that is of utmost importance especially for the air cargo industry.
“It is also the only airport in North Germany, with a catchment area stretching from the Baltic Sea to France and Poland on account of its excellent infrastructure links, especially the Autobahn system” lauded State Economics Secretary Oliver Liersch of Lower Saxony State.
By flying the shipments directly out of Hanover airport “we don’t have to truck them to Rhein-Main which saves time, money, greenhouse gas emissions and enhances our product quality because we skip one major interface,” Eschrich pointed
out.
Raoul Hille, MD of Hannover Airport, spoke of the development as a “milestone” for his airport during the welcome ceremony of the first flight.
In fact, ABC is the first airline in the history of the 1952-built airport offering full freighter services to and from Hanover. Prior to these flights the airport management in collaboration with forwarding agents had arranged some charter chains that proved that there is sufficient market demand by regional automotive and machinery producers for direct cargo flights to China.
After discussing this potential with ABC officials over six months they finally managed to convince the Russian carrier to commence flying the new West to East route. “Due to the stopover of the aircraft in Moscow we can offer shippers and forwarders also exporting their products to the Russian market in addition to transporting them to their clients in China and the Far East” underscores head of cargo sales Udo Sass of Hanover airport.
ABC’s VP Europe, Middle East and Africa Ludwig Hamburger did not exclude adding a second weekly frequency on this route in the near future. Before taking any additional action, however, “we first want to make sure that this newly introduced flight pattern becomes successful,” he stated.
Next in Hanover’s cargo strategy is the opening of a 22,000 square metre air cargo terminal due for the end of May this year.
The state-of-the-art facility offers ample space for handling and forwarding agents and is equipped with a number of x-ray
machines for securing air freight shipments. In addition Hanover is currently negotiating a road feeder network with some trucking
companies stretching as far as the Baltic States, Poland, the Czech Republic and Scandinavia for line-haul road services.
Finally, the management intends to enlarge the apron to accommodate up to four B747 freighters simultaneously, said MD Hille. This is a long-term project however, due for realisation within the next four or five years, depending on the development of
cargo traffic.
