newstodate.aero
Sep 11, 2012 (newstodate): After a prolonged period in suspense, airfreight is seemingly coming back to Lithuania's Kaunas Airport again.
In August 2012, the airport handled a total of 199 tonnes of cargo, after having seen no cargo at all until May 2012 when cargo first made its cautious reappearance.
The traffic is driven by ex-China exports to Russian customers, figuring as imports in the airport's statistics, and trucked from Kaunas to Russia.
-We are more than happy to see this development in times when all global figures and trends are rather depressing, says Jurate Baltrusaityte, interim General Manager.
-Behind this new drive is the Lithuanian logistics company Hoptrans that was also behind the earlier Jade Air Cargo freighter service from Shanghai into Kaunas, continuing to Frankfurt in an operation with Lufthansa Cargo.
-Hoptrans is now flying in Chinese goods for the Russian market again, this time using an IL-62 aircraft with one, or in some cases two operations per week. We cross our fingers that this augurs a return of volumes like before, but so far we are satisfied to see some cargo at all building up again, says Ms Baltrusaityte.
In 2011, a total of 4,222 tonnes of cargo was handled at the airport and in 2011 totals were 4,449 tonnes - still a far cry from earlier years when up to 10,000 tonnes of cargo were landed at the airport.
In August 2012, the airport handled a total of 199 tonnes of cargo, after having seen no cargo at all until May 2012 when cargo first made its cautious reappearance.
The traffic is driven by ex-China exports to Russian customers, figuring as imports in the airport's statistics, and trucked from Kaunas to Russia.
-We are more than happy to see this development in times when all global figures and trends are rather depressing, says Jurate Baltrusaityte, interim General Manager.
-Behind this new drive is the Lithuanian logistics company Hoptrans that was also behind the earlier Jade Air Cargo freighter service from Shanghai into Kaunas, continuing to Frankfurt in an operation with Lufthansa Cargo.
-Hoptrans is now flying in Chinese goods for the Russian market again, this time using an IL-62 aircraft with one, or in some cases two operations per week. We cross our fingers that this augurs a return of volumes like before, but so far we are satisfied to see some cargo at all building up again, says Ms Baltrusaityte.
In 2011, a total of 4,222 tonnes of cargo was handled at the airport and in 2011 totals were 4,449 tonnes - still a far cry from earlier years when up to 10,000 tonnes of cargo were landed at the airport.