Air China Cargo Airlines starts cargo services via Vienna

Picture: Thomas Ramgraber

Air China Cargo Airlines has introduced three weekly Boeing 747 cargo flights via Vienna today on 23 September 2009.

The routing is identical on all three days of operation: Beijing - Shanghai - Vienna - Milan-Malpensa - Shanghai - Beijing.

Here is the schedule in detail:
CA 1069/70  PEK-PVG- 08:25 VIE 11:25 -MXP-PVG-PEK  B74F  Days --3-5-7

In the newspaper Shanghai Daily the president of Air China Cargo Airlines, Yao Jun, is quoted saying: "We have seen a recovery in the global cargo business, so we plan to enhance our presence in Middle and Southern Europe. But it's still too early to predict when the route will be profitable because freight rates are still 20 percent to 30 percent lower than a year earlier despite recovering demand."

The new cargo service started only one day after Vienna International Airport had reported a slow recovery in cargo figures. In the first half of 2009 the amount of transported cargo via Vienna had been down 15 percent from the figures of 2008. In July this figure improved to only 9 percent, and in August to only four percent.