Beginning in fall of 2015 cargo carrier AeroLogic is allowed to commence scheduled flights across the Pacific. Conversely, Cathay Pacific Cargo will be able to offer direct transatlantic transport from German airports to different destinations in the U.S.

The skies have become somewhat more open, at least for flights operated by Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Cargo and German carrier AeroLogic, a joint venture of DHL Express and Lufthansa Cargo (50/50%). Both carriers were conceded Fifth Freedom rights, giving them the basic right to stretch their worldwide reach, in spite of many persisting restrictions and fences which still fragment the skies.

The agreement on liberalizing certain sectors is the result of a two day bilateral negotiation on air traffic matters between officials from Germany and their counterparts from Hong Kong, held recently on request of the German side in Hong Kong.

Their main aim was to obtain additional rights for AeroLogic, to directly link DHL’s main East Asian and North American hubs Hong Kong and Cincinnati in order to keep up with the logistics giant’s increasing transport demand across the Pacific. Up to now this was impossible for the Leipzig-based cargo airline due to lacking bilateral agreements. Consequently, DHL Express had no choice but to utilize external capacity for connecting both gateways, so far mostly provided by U.S. carrier Southern Air. In future however, with the political barriers having been set aside, DHL’s subsidiary AeroLogic can conduct daily flights under its own operational responsibility between HKG and CVG. According to statistics their Triple Seven freighters are able to serve this route nonstop, although with a slightly reduced payload due to the vast distance separating the airports. An interesting question to be answered in the coming months will be if AeroLogic decides to operate the HKG-CVG link with its own equipment consisting currently of eight 777Fs or if the airline ops for a route swap with another capacity provider.