Air instead of sea freight
Neo Air Charter operated 60 widebody freighter charters in the first two months of 2024, to circumvent e-commerce supply chain problems caused by the Red Sea attacks on shipping, which have effectively closed the Suez Canal route.
The 60 B747F and B777F charter flights operated from Hong Kong to destinations in Europe, the USA, and Central America. All flights carried full payloads of e-commerce traffic between multiple shippers and their consignees. In keeping with NEO’s strict trade-only policy, the charters were all booked via major logistics service providers.
“In case anyone was in any doubt, the Red Sea attacks are causing a lot of time-sensitive traffic to switch to airfreight,”NEO general manager Brian Davis said. “We haven’t seen demand like this since the early days of Covid.” (cj)