DHL set to invade Asia in new partnership 

Global freight company DHL Express is set to expand its international market share on the back of a new trans-Pacific partnership with Polar Air Cargo, a subsidiary of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings.

Under the new agreement, DHL gains access to Polar Air Cargo’s six Boeing 747-400F aircraft that will serve eight key destinations in Asia and the US.

The partnership is expected to strengthen DHL’s position in the international express market through an improved offering on one of its major intercontinental trade lanes.

DHL will utilise Polar Air Cargo’s scheduled weekday flights from Los Angeles, Wilmington and New York via Anchorage to the Asian destinations of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo.

The partnership also covers an extended weekend schedule, with flights to Honolulu, Sydney, Sharjah and Leipzig.

DHL Express CEO John Mullen said the trans-Pacific trade played a key role in the company’s growth strategy.

“The partnership with Polar Air Cargo enables DHL to significantly improve its time definite product offering and thus become more attractive to our customers on one of the world’s most important trade lanes.

“Moreover, we are extending our trans-Pacific services to also include a connection to JFK, offering a time definite service from Asia to the US East Coast. This too will help boost our international services to and from the US,” Mr Mullen said.

Volume on DHL’s TransPacific routes has been steadily increasing in recent years and despite a slowdown in 2008, overall trans-Pacific air cargo volume is expected to show double digit growth in the mid-term.

DHL Express Global Aviation chief executive Charles Graham said the company decided to partner with Polar Air Cargo as it had excellent operational and on-time performance and vast experience in international air cargo.

Polar Air Cargo has been providing air lift to DHL Express with two B747-400Fs since March this year, when it replaced the regular US-Hong Kong service that had been previously served by another carrier.

“These flights have been operating to an outstanding on-time arrival performance of over 96 percent, which means that almost all flights stay within a 15-minute limit of scheduled arrival time,” Mr Graham said.

In a move to further expand its market position in Asia, DHL has also increased the frequency of its Air Hong Kong flights from Hong Kong to Nagoya, Taipei, Seoul and Singapore from October 27.  Flights to these cities have been increased to six times per week, up from the current five times a week, representing a 20 per cent increase in capacity for each of these four cities.

Air Hong Kong, a 60/40 joint venture between Cathay Pacific and DHL, will now operate four additional A300-600 flights on these routes. This represents an increased dedicated capacity of 45 tonnes per week on each of the four routes to serve the needs of growing intra-Asia trade.

[Tue 28/10/2008 04:39:28]