Cargolux Zhengzhou Freighters Already Getting Direct Competition!

This announcement certainly will not help in convincing CV‘s unions or management that the previously announced J/V with the Henan Civil Aviation Development and Investment Company (HNCA) might be the right one!

Liege Airport, basically around the corner from Luxembourg‘s Findel Airport just won a lucrative contract for at least two weekly flights from CGO to LGG. These flights will be operated exclusively carrying components manufactured by Foxconn in Zhengzhou which is dedicated to the manufacture of Apple iPhones and iPads.

Apparently, TNT has been operating a series of trial flights on this route for the past month or so and the result is that Liege comes out on top over Amsterdam and Luxembourg, who were also in the running.
The ink had not yet even dried on the CV-CGO agreement for a joint venture on the Zhengzhou – Luxembourg route, when it was announced today that a direct Zhengzhou-Liege service will be started using TNT Boeing 747F aircraft.

On arrival in Liege, the components will then be distributed throughout Europe.

The contract was arranged through Navitrans, a Chinese air freight brokerage company founded in 2004 with its base in Shanghai.

Navitrans is well known for its air freight charter activities from China to Europe and the USA. They have been using the services of Silk Way Airlines from China to Hahn airport near Frankfurt for some time now. The return flights to Shanghai are marketed in Germany by Globe Air Cargo, Frankfurt.

It indeed seems that Zhengzhou is becoming a central point on the Chinese air cargo map.
But how could or would this affect the recently much publicized Cargolux deal with the Henan district local government?

This deal has not even got off the ground yet, it‘s viability is being questioned by European legal experts and our information is that it‘s a highly conflictive issue internally at Cargolux.

It can be assumed that Foxconn, through Navitrans, will use TNT‘s extensive European Logistics Distribution Center in order to distribute this highly sensitive cargo. This is a well proven service and one which is very hard to compete with.

It seems that Apple is convinced that Liege is better suited for this than either AMS or LUX.
Will this convince others to look more closely at Liege as a distribution center for the future?

More competition for Luxembourg and Amsterdam?

Source: Cargo Forwarder