Lithuania is to benefit from its first freighter flight to China when Belarusian carrier, TransAviaExpress launches Tianjin – Kaunas services on 15 September.
The twice-weekly scheduled charter service will be operated with a Boeing 747-300 Freighter on Sundays and Wednesdays, and has been driven by Chinese e-trade exports. The twice-weekly flights will serve as a test for the viability of the service and plans for 2017 will be based on these results.
Co-owner and member of the Board of Lithuanian logistics company Hoptrans, Jan Hyttel says: “The new service is driven by Chinese e-trade exports, and shipments will be distributed from Kaunas to the Baltic, Scandinavian, Central European and other markets by Hoptrans’ finely-tuned network of trucking services.”
He adds: “Even more unique, this new freighter service will from the very start also build up volumes of cargo to China from European exporters to contribute to a balanced operation.”
Hyttel predicts that perishable and dairy exports from countries such as Poland and Lithuania to China will perform strongly and the new service will provide strong demand for the freighter service.
“The coming new freighter service will offer shorter flying times compared to operations into other airports such as Copenhagen and Frankfurt, trucking and logistics are provided at competitive costs, and combined these factors will contribute to bolster the success of this new venture.”