Air France KLM expands cargo service to Shanghai
The 100th flight carrying cargo in the cabin of a KLM plane arrives at the Pudong airport.
Air France KLM, currently the largest European airline group with a China-Europe route, will further increase its cargo service to Shanghai to cap rising demands amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Air France will begin operating daily cargo flights between Shanghai and Paris from next week, while KLM Royal Dutch Airlines plans to operate four additional weekly flights apart from the current daily cargo flight between Amsterdam and Shanghai.
“To meet an enormous need for the rapid transport of medical equipment and other supplies between the Netherlands and China, KLM has especially brought its retired Boeing 747 Combi back into operation,” said Toon Balm, general manager of Air France KLM, China. Passenger aircraft have been converted into makeshift cargo freighters to increase the cargo capacity.
In the mid of October, KLM president and CEO Pieter Elbers arrived in Shanghai with the 100th cargo flight carrying cargo in the cabin, serving as a porter at the Pudong International Airport. So far, the carrier has shipped more than 80,000 cases of personal protection equipment.
The airline has transported more than 85 million masks globally since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Commodities transported by Air France and KLM from China include electronics, phones, telecom equipment, computer accessories, garments, e-commerce goods, footwear, fashion accessories, toys and mail.
The products transported to China before COVID-19 were mainly fruits, poultry and frozen fish products, milk powder, infrastructure and building items, telecom equipment, high-end retail and fashion items, according to Balm.
Only thing that changed post-COVID-19 was that there was a big demand and supply of personal protection equipment mainly from China like masks, gloves, surgical gowns, face shields and test kits, he said.
KLM's president & CEO Pieter Elbers
Passenger service
As for the passenger service, Air France KLM group now operates seven passenger flights to four destinations on the Chinese mainland, including two weekly flights of Air France and one weekly service of KLM between Shanghai and Europe.
Air France is also operating a weekly flight to Beijing, while KLM is flying two weekly flights to Hangzhou in neighboring Zhejiang Province.
“Subject to the lifting of travel restrictions, the gradual increase in the number of frequencies and destinations will continue,” Balm said.
The International Air Transport Association has predicted that global passenger traffic will not return to pre-COVID-19 levels until 2024, a year later than previously projected.
China remains the second-largest overseas market for Air France KLM and the biggest in Asia, Balm said.
“We can see China’s civil aviation industry is experiencing a rapid recovery, with the national flight regularity rate exceeding 90 percent and international flights steadily recovering,” he said.
Although full passenger services cannot be resumed any time soon, Balm said the group will carry out promotion campaigns once the pandemic is under effective control and continue to expand its digital reach to reinforce the brands in the Chinese market.
Staff transport cargo from the cabin of a makeshift cargo aircraft of KLM at the Pudong airport.
The passenger cabin of a KLM aircraft is filled with cargo at the Pudong airport.
