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Apr 15, 2016 (newstodate): After efficient lobbying and political cooperation, Norway is again cleared to lift shipments of king crabs directly from Norway to South Korea.
-Thanks to a close cooperation between shippers, handling agents and the political system, a solution has been found to the issues that caused the flights to be suspended. All issues have been cleared now, and we may resume operations any time now, says a spokesman for the logistics company handling the exports, Air Cargo Logistics.
With the first flight from Lakselv Banak Airport to Seoul, South Korea on January 14, 2016, the operation has been performed for the country's leading exporter of fresh king crabs, Cape Fish with a TU-204C from the Russian carrier Aviastar-TU - and this caused a problem.
According to the existing bi-lateral air services agreement between Norway and Korea, only designated carriers can operate scheduled flights between the two countries, and while the Russian flights have so far been operated as ad-hoc charters requiring individual permits, the pattern came close to a scheduled traffic.
The flights were halted by the Norwegian CAA to put pressure on Russia to reopen negotiations on the air services agreement between these two countries which would be helpful to carrier such as Norwegian that needs access to Russian airspace. But this pressure has so far failed to produce results.
Instead, the Norwegian CAA has now lifted the issue of the specific cargo charter flights from the air services agreement talks, allowing the traffic to be resumed.
In 2014, the total volume of live king crab exports from Norway were around 600 tonnes, 2015 saw a slight decline to some 550 tonnes, but expectations are for volumes in 2016 to go up to 8-900 tonnes, with potentials for further increases in the years ahead.
-Thanks to a close cooperation between shippers, handling agents and the political system, a solution has been found to the issues that caused the flights to be suspended. All issues have been cleared now, and we may resume operations any time now, says a spokesman for the logistics company handling the exports, Air Cargo Logistics.
With the first flight from Lakselv Banak Airport to Seoul, South Korea on January 14, 2016, the operation has been performed for the country's leading exporter of fresh king crabs, Cape Fish with a TU-204C from the Russian carrier Aviastar-TU - and this caused a problem.
According to the existing bi-lateral air services agreement between Norway and Korea, only designated carriers can operate scheduled flights between the two countries, and while the Russian flights have so far been operated as ad-hoc charters requiring individual permits, the pattern came close to a scheduled traffic.
The flights were halted by the Norwegian CAA to put pressure on Russia to reopen negotiations on the air services agreement between these two countries which would be helpful to carrier such as Norwegian that needs access to Russian airspace. But this pressure has so far failed to produce results.
Instead, the Norwegian CAA has now lifted the issue of the specific cargo charter flights from the air services agreement talks, allowing the traffic to be resumed.
In 2014, the total volume of live king crab exports from Norway were around 600 tonnes, 2015 saw a slight decline to some 550 tonnes, but expectations are for volumes in 2016 to go up to 8-900 tonnes, with potentials for further increases in the years ahead.