Cathay Pacific to increase Cargo services between Hong Kong and India

Cathay Pacific is to expand its world cargo network with a new twice weekly freighter service linking Hong Kong to the fast-growing Indian cities of Mumbai (Bombay) and, for the first time, Chennai (Madras). It will also be the airline’s first direct freighter service from India to Hong Kong.

India is one of the world’s fastest growing cargo markets with an increasingly affluent customer base hungry for products made in China. The addition of this southeastern port city of Chennai will open up a new market for the airline and offer broader national coverage beyond the existing Cathay Pacific cargo and passenger services to Delhi and Mumbai.

The new service will operate every Tuesday and Friday from 2 June 2006 with a Boeing 747-200F freighter. It will depart Hong Kong at 11.40am, arrive in Mumbai at 3.00pm local time the same day before continuing to Chennai later that afternoon and heading back to Hong Kong at 7.50pm, arriving in the early hours of the following morning in good time for onward connections to the US.

Current Cathay Pacific freighter services to India include a three-times weekly flight to Mumbai which continues to Dubai and Paris then returns to Hong Kong via Dubai. The three-times-weekly Delhi service continues to London, then heads back to Hong Kong via Milan.

Cathay Pacific Director and General Manager Cargo Ron Mathison said, “Chennai is a major air cargo centre for textiles and clothing industries and will be a useful addition to our global freighter network. We will look to adding more freighter services to India later this year when we get more aircraft capacity.”

See other recent news regarding: Travel News Asia, Cathay Pacific, Cargo, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Chennai