Quarantine requirements and flight crew stops have focused air cargo’s attention on Central Asia. Several major airports in the 11-country Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) have seen a significant increase in cargo flights as airlines stop to refuel and change crews.
And the Asian Development Bank sees this as an opportunity for the region’s aviation industry in invest in cargo. “While CAREC has several freighters and cargo airlines, airports and governments should look at further investing in facilities to help attract more transit cargo and support exports during the crisis,” it said.
While Baku maybe vying for position as regional transport hub, other states also have their eye on the ball. Silkway West flies into Tbilisi twice a week, while Coyne Airways, a Caspian specialist, recently announced the resumption of direct freighter flights to the Georgian capital from Cologne-Bonn.
Coyne stopped its Tbilisi service last May, owing to Covid-19, although it continued to serve customers by road from Yerevan.
Coyne operates scheduled trucks from gateways including London, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam to connect with the Cologne flight – although it added that it could collect cargo from “virtually any global gateway” using a single AWB.
The flights arrive very early on a Monday, putting them first in the queue for Customs clearance and ready to leave the airport again as business hours begin the same day, taking advantage of the “weekend dead time” to be attractive to forwarders.
Read the full story on The Loadstar – https://theloadstar.com/more-flights-arriving-deliver-opportunities-for-central-asian-air-cargo-sector/
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