A year since IAG Cargo’s Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur route launch on a British Airways bellyhold service – IAG says it has “exceeded expectations”, proving itself a “valuable gateway” for manufacturers and high-tech shippers.
The carrier says demand from pharmaceutical customers has also been high and since the launch in May last year, IAG Cargo has seen weekly tonnage volumes of Constant Climate shipments out of Asia Pacific increase by an average of 50 per cent compared to the previous year.
Similarly, pharma volumes into the region have seen an average 30 per cent weekly rise versus the same period in 2015. This improved performance was supported by the launch of a new Constant Climate enabled station at Kuala Lumpur in December 2015.
IAG says while there has been a broad slowdown across emerging economies, Malaysia’s economy has proven resilient, beating market expectations with 4.2 per cent growth annually in the first quarter of 2016. This growth has been driven by the region’s growing manufacturing industry which is expected to continue to thrive this year.
IAG Cargo head of commercial, David Shepherd, says: “One year on, this route continues to offer real benefits for our customers with high technology goods, machine parts and raw materials driving both imports and exports.
“More recently we have seen significant demand for specialist pharmaceutical transportation and following significant investment we are now able to service that demand though our Constant Climate centre in Kuala Lumpur. This addition brings our temperature sensitive network to 110 stations across the globe.”
Businesses looking to trade with Kuala Lumpur benefit from up to 22 tonnes of capacity on each daily flight through next day connections to destinations on the IAG Cargo network. The route is operated by a Boeing 787-9.
