DHL rolls out new international flight in response to trade activity between U.S and Asia-Pacific

Driven by a rebound in trade activity between the United States and Asia-Pacific, express delivery and logistics services provider DHL announced this week it has rolled out a new around the world flight, which connects Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Leipzig.

Company officials said this new flight will “create a unique service proposition on key trade lanes between Asia, and Western U.S. and Canada.” And they added that its Asia-based locations, including Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Manila and various China-based cities will benefit from next-day connection into Los Angeles and much of Western U.S. and Canada. What’s more, they said this represents the first time that shippers in many Asian cities will have access to a one-day express delivery service with any carrier on this intercontinental lane.

And with a new “onward” connection from Los Angeles direct to DHL’s European air hub in Leipzig, Germany, U.S. shippers will be able to order a pick-up from a DHL courier up to 3 hours later for European shipments.

“We are continuing to see increased import and export needs and growth needs from Asia-Pacific to the Americas, specifically to our NAFTA trade lanes,” said Mike Parra, senior vice president and head of operations for DHL Express Americas. “Five of the top ten trade lanes where we are seeing strong growth are Australia, China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, coming from these regions inbound to NAFTA countries, as well as outbound.”

This activity, he said, is what drove the need to vet this flight, as DHL is constantly looking at its network and has the flexibility because it partners with various airlines and look at certain opportunities when and where possible to offer what he described as a market leading new segment it can leverage as it continues to grow its business between Asia-Pacific and the Americas.

DHL had been planning this initiative since September 201l, when it was discussing the increased volume trends it was seeing into the NAFTA countries and it had an opportunity with a partner airline carrier, Southern Air, to introduce this lane segment to introduce transit time capabilities and offer market-leading transit times into the west coast and into western Canada and into Mexico.

“Our customers on the west coast and western Canada were asking for improved transit times in these areas,” said Parra.

Typical transit times for this new flight are improved by one full day—from two days down to one—out of key locations including Kuala Lumpur, Manilla, Bangkok, Singapore, and Beijing, among others in China, according to Parra. DHL is already providing next-day transit times from Tokyo and Hong Kong to the United States west coast as far as Phoenix, Oregon, western Washington, western Canada—including Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton, and Las Vegas, Tuscon, and into Mexico.

And he added that with this new flight DHL can now offer shippers the latest pick up time on the west coast for material going to Europe with a pick up time that is three hours later, which he described as a strong advantage for customers, as they don’t have to shorten their call cycles for customers calling in on the west coast. Instead, they can allow their customers, such as e-tailers, to take orders for three additional orders and still make a next-day service into European markets.

Last September, DHL inked a deal with Southern Air in which three Boeing 777F freighters operated by Southern Air were introduced. As per the terms of the deal, Southern Air operates these freighters on intercontinental routes that connect the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East, according to DHL. And the first route from Hong Kong to the Express Hub in Cincinnati to Bahrain and back to Hong Kong is already in operation.

“This service is a game changer. This new round-the-world flight will offer customers in key Asian markets the best transit times to Western U.S. and Canada and on into Europe,” said Stephen Fenwick, Regional CEO for DHL Express Americas, in a statement. “The new flight is part of DHL’s operations strategy to improve our network infrastructure and add capacity. In the Americas, the recently announced $47 million expansion of DHL’s super-hub in Cincinnati and the expansion of our gateway in Miami will allow us to process the increasing amount of heavy-weight cargo we’re seeing.”