newstodate.aero
May 28, 2018 (newstodate): There is an interest in Norway's seafood-related industries to see the opening of direct freighter flights to Asia from airports in the country's northern region - but the process is depending on many factors.
-Three airports in the northern parts of Norway might be capable of handling freighter traffic, but with restrictions on runways and other infrastructure Boeing 747 freighters would be too large, meaning that Airbus and Boeing 777F aircraft would be more relevant, says Stale Slemmen, Cermaq Logistics Manager.
-We are talking to partners in the industry and even if freighter services at Oslo Airport are crucial to the seafood logistics, direct operations from airports such as Bodo, Eveness and Banak would still be an important complement to avoid the two days' trucking to Oslo from production sites in northern Norway.
-A solution would require the cooperation between several parties including freight forwarders, producers and operators, and right now there is little available freighter capacity in the market meaning that we would have to look into 2019, rather than 2018, for new solutions to appear.
-The issue of Russian overflight rights is also very important, but as we see salmon exports to China returning, this might maybe attract a Chinese carrier to consider opening of flights to northern Norway.
-Of course, there is always the problem of an imbalance between imports and exports to support a freighter solution, but after all freighters are today flying empty into Oslo as well to load seafood exports, so there is certainly a business case, says Mr Slemmen.
-Three airports in the northern parts of Norway might be capable of handling freighter traffic, but with restrictions on runways and other infrastructure Boeing 747 freighters would be too large, meaning that Airbus and Boeing 777F aircraft would be more relevant, says Stale Slemmen, Cermaq Logistics Manager.
-We are talking to partners in the industry and even if freighter services at Oslo Airport are crucial to the seafood logistics, direct operations from airports such as Bodo, Eveness and Banak would still be an important complement to avoid the two days' trucking to Oslo from production sites in northern Norway.
-A solution would require the cooperation between several parties including freight forwarders, producers and operators, and right now there is little available freighter capacity in the market meaning that we would have to look into 2019, rather than 2018, for new solutions to appear.
-The issue of Russian overflight rights is also very important, but as we see salmon exports to China returning, this might maybe attract a Chinese carrier to consider opening of flights to northern Norway.
-Of course, there is always the problem of an imbalance between imports and exports to support a freighter solution, but after all freighters are today flying empty into Oslo as well to load seafood exports, so there is certainly a business case, says Mr Slemmen.