Toronto with baggage
The freight operator Air Canada Cargo is opening the first regular trans-Atlantic cargo link to and from the EuroAirport. Canada’s national carrier will initially connect Basel to Toronto, the country’s largest airport.
14 April saw an Air Canada Cargo aero plane arrive at the Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg trinational EuroAirport for the first time, with a Boeing B787-900 Dreamliner coming in over French territory to land. This marked the beginning of a new trans-Atlantic cargo link between Toronto and Basel.
Twice a week
In keeping with tradition, the Dreamliner was greeted by the airport fire brigade and welcomed with a water shower. This is the first regular trans-Atlantic airfreight link for the EuroAirport since the demise of Swissair in the early years of this century, and the concomitant end to Swissair’s cargo activities at the gateway.
From now on, Air Canada Cargo will connect Basel-Mulhouse airport with Toronto, which is Canada’s largest airport, twice a week, flying in on Wednesdays and Sundays, arriving at 12:55 p.m. and departing again at 8 p.m. The new airfreight route will be operated with a Boeing 787-900 Dreamliner, a long-haul aircraft known for its fuel efficiency as well as its low noise emissions.
A normal passenger version of the aircraft will be used for the flights to and from the EuroAirport. It will not be converted into a ‘preighter’ either; only the cargo hold will be used to transport the goods in the consignments.
An entire continent in its sights
The new cargo link will facilitate the transportation of goods, both imports and exports, between the trinational region around the EuroAirport and North as well as Latin America. It is also expected to contribute to the economic development of the German-French-Swiss area, and lead to a broader support of the growing cargo sector at the EuroAirport.
