The first flight from China Cargo airline landed at St. Louis's Lambert International Airport Sept. 23 from Shanghai, marking the establishment of a link between China's financial hubs and the U.S. heartland. The once-weekly service is operated with a B777F, but both Chinese and U.S. officials have worked to establish the cargo route, and they are pressing for an increase to three times a week before the U.S. holiday season begins.

In other air cargo news, airports in Monterrey, Caracas and Buenos Aires were among the fastest-growing in cargo traffic last year, according to a Latin Business Chronicle analysis based on data from  the Airports Council International. Cargo traffic at Monterrey, the 20th-largest cargo airport in Latin America, grew 432% to 48,710 metric tons. Meanwhile, traffic at Caracas, the 14th-largest cargo airport, grew 39.6% to 85,655 metric tons. And the Jorge Newbery Airport in Buenos Aires, the 34th-largest cargo airport, grew at 38.3% to 18,945 metric tons.

While Airbus admits it concentrated on demand for passenger aircraft for 2011 to 2030, it insists that this did not indicate a lack of interest in the freighter market. It estimates that 927 new-build freighters will be needed over the next 20 years - a figure which is broadly consistent with Boeing's figure of 970 freighter aircraft in the same period.

The dedicated freight subsidiary of UAE carrier Emirates Airlines has launched a new link to the Far East and Australasia. The weekly service, operated with the new Boeing 777F freighter started Sept. 12. The service is flying the Dubai-Singapore-Sydney-Hong Kong-Dubai route, with additional connectivity to Emirates' wider cargo network from its Dubai hub.

Finally, Atlas Air's cargo operations will include nine 747-8Fs and 24 747-400 freighters by the end of 2013 as well as two passenger 747-400s and three passenger 767-300s providing charter service to the U.S. military and other customers. In addition, Atlas Air expects to operate at least 11 customer-owned aircraft in its crew, maintenance and insurance operations. These include four 747 Large Cargo Freighters for Boeing, five 767 freighters for DHL Express, and two additional 747-400 passenger aircraft for SonAir.

Source: Aviation News Weekly