Air freight at its best
DACHSER successfully operated air charters out of China despite intensifying challenges.
The air freight team at the DACHSER Far East region has been working beyond their capacity since the global passenger flights have come to a halt as the global pandemic prevails. The company reacts quickly to the COVID-19 crisis by operating its first chartered flight at the beginning of March. Since then, more charters were arranged to connect the manufactures in Asia to the customer markets in Europe and America.
In mid-April, DACHSER in Guangzhou has worked with the China Southern Airlines to operate their first passenger belly charter flights from Guangzhou to Frankfurt. “This means we developed a new route for the transportation of epidemic prevention supplies between South China and Germany,” said Kevin Chen, Managing Director Far East South. “This new solution was immediately replicated by other airlines and customers in the Guangzhou market during the special period. In total, we have operated 4 passenger belly charter flights successfully in April and we plan to have more in the coming months to provide our customers with additional capacity at this difficult time,” Chen continued.
Until the end of April, there were 22 chartered flights out from the Far East region, of which 15 charters were airlifted just in the month of April including the company’s first-ever Transpacific charters.
Operating charters by getting through the hurdles
Indeed, to successfully operate charters in China is increasingly difficult due to airport terminal congestion and over-limit of ground handling capability. The Chinese government has imposed more and stricter customs requirements for medical supplies exporting out of China. Shippers need to provide various certificates and declarations as a supporting document to the Chinese Customs to ensure the quality of the medical supplies are up to standard.
The prolonged Customs inspections resulted in truck queues of up to 2 days outside the airport terminals. Not only for medical supplies but general cargoes are also being affected with the heavy congestions at both Shanghai PVG and Guangzhou airports. “At DACHSER, we always provide reliable service,” stressed Yves Larquemin, Managing Director Far East North. “Our logistics experts proactively work together with our customers to get the required documents in time and have their shipment arrived at the terminal well in advance, so they would not miss the chartered flight,” Larquemin said.