High demand for Norwegian seafood is the reason behind Air Cargo Global’s new Norwegian route, which will be operated between Norway’s main airport and Tianjin, 100 kilometres east of Beijing, twice a week. “We aim to step up to three weekly departures from March, if the market responds well to the increased capacity,” commented Peter Scholten, Chief Commercial Officer of Air Cargo Global.
“We have reached an agreement with Fish Forever, a major Chinese trading company that specialises in fish. They contacted us wanting to look into the possibility of importing fresh Norwegian seafood directly to China, because demand for high quality fresh fish is on the increase in the Chinese market,” Scholten explained.
“Previously, most of the air freight was from Asia to Europe. However, thanks to Norwegian seafood, among other things, there is a more even balance of freight going in both directions. From a business point of view this is of course a positive development,” he added.
Air Cargo Global enjoys a good partnership with Avinor, which assisted in the set up of the new route with a view to enabling the growing Norwegian seafood industry to reach its markets efficiently.
“It is very pleasing that Air Cargo Global is now able to offer direct freight capacity to China, a market that has an ever-increasing demand for supply of fresh Norwegian seafood,” says Martin Langaas, Director of Cargo at Avinor. "With this route we contribute to Norwegian exporters getting their products quickly and efficiently onto the market, so that the seafood is served as fresh as possible. This is important for the seafood industry and will contribute to value creation in Norway.”
Air Cargo Global will use a Boeing 747-400F for the route between Oslo and Tianjin.