Schenker set to launch new round-trip air logistics service for shippers in multiple industries

Jeff Berman, Senior Editor -- Logistics Management, 6/1/2007

TOLEDO, Ohio—A new airfreight service from Schenker, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn (DB) Logistics, will touch ground for the first time in Hahn Gemany on June 3. The service is geared toward shippers in the electronics, automotive, mechanical engineering, and garment sectors.

The maiden flight will be on a Boeing 747-440F, and it will be a round-trip flight from Dubai to Toledo, Ohio via Frankfurt/Hahn airport, where it will land.

Once the service gets underway, an Emirates SkyCargo aircraft will depart Dubai International Airport every Saturday at 11:30 p.m. local time, and head for Germany with 110 tons of cargo on board, according to a press release issued by BAX Global, another subsidiary of DB Logistics. And six hours later, the cargo for European destinations will be received by Schenker employees at Hahn, at which point the aircraft will be loaded with additional shipments for the United States. The cargo aircraft will then land in Toledo eight hours later, where There the largest and highest-capacity hub of the combined Schenker and BAX organizations for the U.S. market will feed the shipments into the American distribution network. On the return flight, the plane will arrive in Hahn again in the early morning and in Dubai in the afternoon.

"American [shippers] will benefit tremendously from our new round-trip service from Toledo to Hahn and Dubai,” BAX spokesperson Marie Connell told Logistics Management.  “It gives them faster access to European and Middle Eastern markets." 

Dr. Thomas C. Lieb, member of the Board of Schenker AG for global air and ocean freight operations, said in the press release that this initiativewas launched due to the good experience Schenker had with its direct flight between Hahn and Toledo last year. And he also noted that new flight is closely tied to an intermodal logistics service provided by Schenker on the main routes between Asia and Europe.

Another benefit of this new service, according to the BAX, is that it combines the economical rates for ocean freight from Asia via Dubai with the speed of air freight. It added that Compared with ocean freight alone, this cuts transit time by up to 50 percent, at a cost that is up to 50 percent less than with air freight alone. Schenker also provides a similar service from Asia to Vancouver for the American market.