newstodate.aero
Jul 25, 2016 (newstodate): A niche product in Norway's huge seafood business, the export of king crabs relies on efficient air logistics targeting the Asian markets.
With the first flight on January 14, 2016, the country's leading exporter, Cape Fish launched own direct flights from Lakselv Banak Airport to Seoul, South Korea, using a chartered TU-204C aircraft from the Russian carrier Aviastar in an operation managed by the Norwegian freight forwarder Air Cargo Logistics and aiming at South Korea, China and Japan as well as a number of rising markets such as India, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Malaysia.
This air service, however, into problems with the existing air services agreements.
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 in April 2016 lifted the issue of the specific cargo charter flights from the air services agreement talks, allowing the traffic to be resumed on a temporary permit.
While the bi-lateral negotiations have still not yielded positive results, Norway's CAA has now extended the temporary permit by another six months.
Expectations are that the volume of king crab exports will come close to 1,000 tonnes in 2016, with a clear growth trend.
With the first flight on January 14, 2016, the country's leading exporter, Cape Fish launched own direct flights from Lakselv Banak Airport to Seoul, South Korea, using a chartered TU-204C aircraft from the Russian carrier Aviastar in an operation managed by the Norwegian freight forwarder Air Cargo Logistics and aiming at South Korea, China and Japan as well as a number of rising markets such as India, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Malaysia.
This air service, however, into problems with the existing air services agreements.
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 in April 2016 lifted the issue of the specific cargo charter flights from the air services agreement talks, allowing the traffic to be resumed on a temporary permit.
While the bi-lateral negotiations have still not yielded positive results, Norway's CAA has now extended the temporary permit by another six months.
Expectations are that the volume of king crab exports will come close to 1,000 tonnes in 2016, with a clear growth trend.