SF Airlines, the in-house carrier of China’s largest express and courier provider, SF Express, has launched its first freighter service to Europe with a Boeing B747-400ERF operating to Frankfurt-Hahn airport, in Germany, from Wuxi in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China.
The aircraft made a stopover at Chongqing, in southwest China and will ply a Wuxi-Chongqing-Frankfurt Hahn-Wuxi round trip routing.
The B747 freighter, once operated by defunct German-Chinese carrier Jade Cargo, was one of two B747-400ERFs purchased by the SF Airlines’ parent group in November 2017 before undergoing extensive maintenance work.
SF Airlines stated on its website that the Hahn flight “has been the longest one operated by SF Airlines so far” at 9,540 kilometres.
It added: “With a maximum payload of 110 tonnes to accommodate cargo loaded in Wuxi, Chongqing and Hahn, the flight is able to consolidate and ship cargo between East China, West China and Hahn – a critical air freight distribution hub of Europe – through air-air and air-land transit under huge support from local customs in Wuxi and Chongqing.
“Highly valued by local customs in Wuxi and Chongqing and through efforts in communication and coordination, the flight features a simplified flight approval procedure, an optimized transit regulation process and a highly efficient, orderly customs clearance service.
“It also promotes cross-border trading and value realization through cargo circulation and facilitates implementation of the ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative in business trading and circulation.”
The statement said that “after the operation is normalized,” the new route will transport more than 600 tonnes of shipments for SF’s international business from the Chinese Mainland to Europe.
SF Airlines' freighter fleet now extends to 57 aircraft, operating a mix of domestic and international routes.
Last month, SF Airlines added a new Boeing 757-200 freighter service between Changsha, in China, and the Bangladesh capital, Dacca.
“Targeting mainly general cargo and fresh products, the new route will help stimulate the trading between Central China and Bangladesh and facilitate the in-depth development of the country's "Belt and Road" Initiative once it is operated on a regular basis,“ SF Airlines said in a statement.
In May this year, the carrier increased capacity on its Shenzhen–Chennai service by introducing a B747 freighter on the route between southern China and southern India. This had previously been operated with a B767 freighter.
The previous month it had launched a new route from Chengdu to Incheon, in South Korea. with a B767F.
At the start of this year, SF Express announced the launch of a US-China express cargo service as part of its international route expansion strategy.
In a post on its website, the company said it was operating “multiple flights every week,” offering reliable space capacity, an end-to-end tracking system, wide service coverage in the US – with distribution centres located in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Delaware – and a strong service network in China.
The launch signalled the activation of SF Express' agreement with Atlas Air announced in September last year which made provision for the US aircraft lessor to operate a B747-400F on behalf of its Chinese partner “on key global routes across the fast-growing transpacific market, connecting China with the United States.”
In addition, SF Express filed an application to the US Department of Transportation to operate scheduled cargo service three times per week between Hangzhou and New York for at least one year beginning in September 2019 using its own B747 freighter capacity.
However, it is not known if the application has been granted and the service is going ahead.
It is also unclear how SF Airlines' international route expansion strategy affects the joint venture agreement SF Express' and SF Airlines' parent company, SF Holding, signed with UPS in 2017, which focuses on the development and provision of international delivery services from, initially, China to the US and, in the future, to other trade lanes.
