Road haulage partners in Europe
Two Arab cargo airlines expanding their RFS networks. July saw two full-freighter airlines operating from the Arabian Peninsula announce that they had assigned their pan-European road feeder services to a single experienced partner each. While Etihad Cargo from Abu Dhabi (UAE) banks on Wallenborn Transports, from Luxembourg; Saudia Cargo, headquartered in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), has concluded a new agreement with Jan de Rijk, from the Netherlands.
Etihad Cargo, which is headquartered in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), is continuing to establish strategic partnerships with RFS providers from around the world. The new partner of the UAE flag carrier’s cargo division will serve 27 European countries with a single partner – namely Luxembourg-based Wallenborn Transports.
Thomas Schürmann, the airline’s head of cargo operations and delivery, pointed out that providing seamless connectivity between Etihad Cargo’s key European airfreight gateways, including Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris, and to and from offline destinations, “is essential to meeting our key delivery promises.”
“Strategic partnerships with leading RFS providers such as Wallenborn strengthen our proposition and will enable us to further expand operations in Europe, a core territory for us,” Schürmann continued.
Both players are from the Benelux region
Frantz Wallenborn, president and CEO of the Wallenborn Group, elaborated. “This partnership will give Etihad Cargo’s customers access to a network connecting more than 90 airports and a range of specialised logistics solutions, such as GDP-validated transports.”
One of Wallenborn’s Dutch competitors signed a similar strategic partnership deal with Saudia Cargo on 19 July. Jan de Rijk chief executive officer Fred Westdijk described the deal as a “remarkable opportunity for both organisations.”
Saudia Cargo CEO Teddy Zebitz underlined the fact that “Jan de Rijk’s experience and proven track record in Europe align very nicely with our business growth objectives.”