DHL Global Forwarding, the freight forwarding specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, has launched an air freight charter connecting Asia Pacific to Europe and the U.S. to meet demand from customers in the technology, manufacturing and life sciences and healthcare sectors. Managed by StarBroker, DHL Global Forwarding’s in-house charter team, the twice-weekly charter originates from Chongqing, China and flies to Amsterdam, Netherlands; Chicago, United States; Incheon, South Korea before returning to China.

“While some passenger airlines have resumed operations, the situation in the air freight market remains volatile – especially as belly capacity is still tight As the leader in the air freight market, DHL Global Forwarding’s top priority is to provide our customers with sufficient and reliable air freight capacity,” said Thomas Mack, Global Head of Air Freight DHL Global Forwarding. “Not only are the resilient, agile and reliable supply chains of highest importance for an economic recovery, but also in preparation for the availability of vaccines and other essential medical supplies during the pandemic.”

“Over the years, DHL has built up its expertise from globally certified facilities and staff to technologies that track shipments in real-time in addition to ensuring the integrity of such products throughout their journey. Getting the much-needed air capacity is the last piece in the value chain puzzle, so to speak, that ensures temperature sensitive products such as life-saving vaccines reach the communities-in-need,” said Mack.

In a recently published white paper DHL together with McKinsey & Company as analytics partner explores the logistics challenges for vaccines and medical goods during COVID-19. To provide global coverage of COVID-19 vaccines, up to ~200,000 pallet shipments and ~15 million deliveries in cooling boxes as well as ~15,000 flights will be required across the various supply chain set-ups.

DHL Global Forwarding has a global network of facilities that meet the European Union’s Good Distribution Practice guidelines for life sciences and healthcare supply chains. The international provider of air, sea and road freight services has a suite of temperature-controlled freight solutions such as DHL Air Thermonet and DHL LifeConEx that allows real-time visibility and active monitoring for the movement of goods that could include medicines, supplements, vaccines, medical devices and diagnostic equipment.