Panalpina Gulf LLC is launching a weekly scheduled flight from Dubai to Macau via Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyztan, with feeder services to Kazakstan and Uzbekistan. This is the only scheduled full freighter service from Dubai to the southern CIS.
The first flight is scheduled to take off from Dubai on June 18, at 5.30 pm. The flights will be operated every Tuesday by Panalpina's 100 percent-owned sister company, ASB-Air, with a Boeing 747-200 freighter providing main-deck capacities to both destinations.
They are handled through Dnata Cargo's Freezone Logistics Centre (FLC), where Panalpina consolidates shipments in close co-operation with Dnata Cargo.
Swiss-based Panalpina is a provider of intercontinental airfreight and sea freight forwarding and transportation. "The inauguration of this service to the fast growing consumer goods markets in the CIS gives Panalpina a unique opportunity to serve Tashkent (Uzbekistan) and Almaty (Kazakhstan), as well as the developing oil and gas regions in West Kazakhstan, through our feeder flights to Aktau and Uralsk, using Miras' gateway in Bishkek,” said Robert Timmerman, managing director for Panalpina in the Middle East.
Panalpina Gulf LLC is the GSA for Miras, a fully registered Kazakh airline. Further expansion is planned into neighboring states such as Tajikistan to the south and, further south still, to Afghanistan in order to meet the growing demands of this area, according to a company press release.
Panalpina/ASB-Air selected Dubai, and in particular the airport's north side, for this inaugural operation because of the close co-operation that has developed with Dnata Cargo during the past two years, Timmerman added. Panalpina's inbound airfreight volumes have increased by over 300 percent since the use of Dnata's FLC facilities some two years ago.
The decision to use Dubai airport's north side also fully complements Panalpina's move in September this year to its new operations terminal located in Dnata's newly extended FLC. Its close proximity to the airline unloading area is a further advantage.
Wedged between Kazakhstan to the north, Tajikistan to the south and China to the east, the Kyrgyz Republic is a small country of mountains. Formerly incorporated into the USSR, it is now an independent republic, struggling to successfully implement free-market reforms and maintain political and ethnic stability. Kyrgyzstan has a self-sufficient agricultural sector, is rich in mineral resources and has high potential in hydroelectric power generation. Economic ties remain strong with Russia and the other members of the Commonwealth Independent States (CIS). — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
