News / Space on new cargo airline sweetens life for Egypt's strawberry shippers

Perishables air freight forwarders facing a capacity squeeze have gained some relief in the shape of a new Egyptian cargo charter airline.

AirMaster, which operates two B737-800BCFs, is flying mostly twice daily from Cairo to Frankfurt Hahn carrying strawberry shipments, the season for which having started earlier than usual this year.

Hahn Cargo Services COO Lofti Zekkour told The Loadstar that in previous years, the majority of these shipments had been handled by Egyptair’s freighter fleet.

However, as some of these aircraft are deployed on charter operations for the e-commerce sector, AirMaster has stepped in fill the capacity shortfall.

 “This year, the producers in Egypt are having  an excellent strawberry harvest and, at the same time, demand from Europe has increased significantly,” he noted.

 AirMaster is set to provide flights up to Christmas, when EgyptAir is expected to have more maindeck capacity available.

On arrival at Hahn, the strawberry shipments are mainly consigned to DHL Food Logistics for onward distribution to German wholesalers and Belgian perishables air freight forwarder Tulpin Group, which trucks the fruit to supermarkets in the UK via the Channel Tunnel.

Last week, in an interview with The Loadstar, Alain Tulpin, CEO of perishables at Tulpin, explained the difficulties in obtaining freighter capacity for fruit and vegetables – a result of Chinese-origin ecommerce pulling in all-cargo aircraft from Africa and Latin America to China.

Mr Zekkour said: Alain Tulpin had “played a key role in bringing AirMaster to Hahn”. He added: “We have maintained a long-standing business relationship with him. This has been instrumental in ensuring the smooth execution of these operations.”

 And he praised Hahn’s qualities as a hub for cargo traffic: “A combination of speed, specialisation, close coordination, and 24/7 availability makes the airport, together with Hahn Cargo Services, an ideal location for sensitive, time-critical products such as strawberries and e-commerce shipments.” 

 Last week, operating company TRIWO Hahn Airport announced a strategic partnership with Aktau International Airport (SCO), in the central Asia state of Kazakhstan, to focus on cargo collaboration, and this has already led to freighter flights between the two airports.

 In the summer, a similar agreement was signed with the authority running Greenville-Spartanburg Airport, in the US state of South Carolina.

 In the first six months of this year, Hahn Airport handled more than 50,000 tons of cargo, around 2.5% more than the same period last year. In 2024, cargo throughput was 105,268 tons, down from 2023’s 150,329 tons.

 TRIWO, a German property group, has owned Hahn Airport since May 2023, after it filed for bankruptcy in 2021.