News / Paris-Hong Kong freighter flies five times a week as CMA CGM Air Cargo takes off

CMA CGM Air Cargo has this month launched a five-times weekly, non-stop 777 freighter service between Paris-CDG and Hong Kong.

It is the first step in the airline’s move to transfer its hub, and six-strong freighter fleet, from Liège Airport in Belgium to the French air gateway within the framework of a 10-year partnership with Air France-KLM Cargo.

CMA CGM Air Cargo continues to operate a Liège-Chicago service, the number of frequencies varying from week to week, but it will shortly be transferred to CDG, an official at the airline told The Loadstar.

Founded in March last year, the air cargo arm of ocean shipping line CMA CGM is also planning to launch services from CDG to other destinations in Asia for the winter season, beginning end-October, including Seoul, Shanghai and Bangkok.

“Most likely our next freighter service to Asia (after Hong Kong) will be Paris-CDG-Shanghai Pudong-Paris-CDG. with three to four flights a week, and this is set to happen very soon,” the official added.

The current CEO of CMA CGM Air Cargo is Olivier Casanova, who was previously CFO at Ceva Logistics and deputy CFO at CMA CGM, while the airline has just appointed Benoit Schafer as director, operations. He was formerly with French passenger airline, Air Austral.

The carrier had appointed Cathay Pacific Cargo veteran Mark Sutch as head of commercial, but he left after just three months, following the announcement of a JV with AF-KLM.

A source explained earlier this year: “He was employed on the understanding that CMA was building a standalone all-cargo airline, but with the JV announcement, the goalposts moved. In the new joint-venture, it is AF-KLM that will assume the commercial lead, at least for the first couple of years, thus the scope is very different.”

Meanwhile, Maersk Air Cargo, a subsidiary of CMA CGM’s major ocean freight rival, Maersk, is preparing for its commercial launch, expected before the end of the year.

Last month, it operated a ‘special demonstrator flight’ between Seoul Incheon and Greenville Spartanburg in South Carolina, flown by Miami-headquartered cargo carrier Amerijet, using a 767 aircraft which is part of a fleet of three new planes being delivered to Maersk Air Cargo by Boeing.

“The specifics are not in place yet. However, the intention is indeed to route flights between US and Asia,” said a spokersperson.

Nor have routings been confirmed for Maersk Air Cargo’s 767F services between Asia and Europe, the spokesperson added.

The airline’s European hub will be at Billund Airport, in Denmark.