DHL Global Forwarding rolls out new flight, with a focus on healthcare and life sciences

With a sharp focus on meeting demand from its shipper customers in the technology, manufacturing, life sciences and healthcare sectors, DHL Global Forwarding, an air and ocean subsidiary of Deutsche Post DHL Group, said this week it has introduced an air freight charter that connects Asia Pacific to Europe and the United States, which will be a bi-weekly offering.

This is the most recent example of how DHL Global Forwarding rolling out specialized charters since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly 30 (28) having been announced globally. And the company said that this charter, which is managed by StarBroker, the company’s in-house charter team, originates from Chongqing, China and flies to Amsterdam, Netherlands; Chicago, United States; Incheon, South Korea before returning to China.

DHL Global Forwarding said that an impetus for this flight was focused on and developed with demands of life sciences and the healthcare sectors being top of mind. And it added that over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, shippers have turned to DHL Global Forwarding cold chain capabilities in life sciences and healthcare in order to transport test kits and pharmaceutical products.

DHL Global Forwarding CEO David Goldberg told LM that while some passenger airlines have resumed operations, the situation in the airfreight market remains volatile— especially as belly capacity is still tight.

“As we continue to work through this with our customers, we knew we needed to meet a need in the market, specifically focused on the life sciences and healthcare sector, and this flight enables us to continue to provide capacity and access to our network,” he explained.

The DHL executive also pointed out that this new charter is replete with shipper benefits, in the form of being able to provide sufficient and reliable air freight capacity to customers who need it now—and it represents an added service to its already expanded network.

“With [nearly 30] charter flights globally, we are able to ensure temperature sensitive products such as life-saving vaccines reach the communities-in-need,” said Goldberg. “We prioritized special charters for PPE and medical shipments early on, and continue to do so and in preparation for a Covid-19 vaccine.”

When asked what the competitive benefits of this new charter are from a DHL Global Forwarding perspective, Goldberg noted that the company knew early on that it already had the network and access in place to meet life sciences and healthcare needs—specifically around the Coronavirus vaccine.

“We have put a number of services/charters in place over the last six months including a dedicated flight operation with 3X weekly round trips from Chicago to Shanghai to Chicago and 6x weekly round trips to and from EU to China, a $1.6 million investment in our new Indianapolis facility adding to our LSH network, our MMEX service, our LCL Expedited service, a specialized team of LSH experts that are continually communicating with our customers to see what they need, and investing in technologies that track shipments in real-time in addition to ensuring the integrity of such products throughout their journey,” he said. “This charter represents another investment in order to navigate these times and keep on protecting these life-saving shipments.”