The Canadian cargo airline has again commenced serving Cologne/Bonn Airport by linking the city with Hamilton and Halifax with a Thursday deployment of one of their Boeing 767
freighters. It’s the second time that Cargojet lands at Cologne, after conducting flights in the winter season of last year.
“They are here to stay,” enthuses Hassaan Aglan, Managing Director of Skyline Air Services, Cargojet’s European GSA. By stating this he confirms that Cargojet Airways intends flying to
Cologne/Bonn all year round instead of operating only seasonal as was the case during last year’s winter schedule.
Dhillon likes CGN
According to Pauline Dhillon, VP Marketing, Public & Government Relations at Cargojet, Cologne/Bonn has been chosen for these reasons: “It’s a freighter friendly airport, strategically well
located with excellent road services to neighboring markets.” Also she emphasized that “CGN provides unique cargo exports to Canada and the U.S.”
Cargojet’s new – or better relaunched – flights began ten days ago, by operating a Boeing 767-200 freighter aircraft, capable of uplifting 42 tons each time. However, “if fully loaded the craft
is unable to cover the leg Cologne-Hamilton nonstop, instead it has to land either at St. Johns airport in Newfoundland or Nova Scotia’s Halifax Stanfield International for refueling reasons,”
states GSA Aglan.
The 767-300F will soon replace the 767-200F
But operational improvements are only a matter of days, he says. “They just got a new passenger to cargo converted Boeing 767-300 freighter that will replace the sister model B-200 in about two
weeks on flights across the North Atlantic after passing some pending technical checks by the Canadian regulator,” he says. In contrast to the limited B-200F the B-300F variant is capable of
loading up to 55 tons each flight and operate the transatlantic route nonstop due to its enhanced range capability compared to the B-200F’s limited reach.
Only Hamilton-Cologne route
Hamilton, Ontario-based Cargojet is predominantly a domestic Canadian carrier, offering main deck capacity on a widespread network spanning from coast to coast. Cargojet and Lufthansa Cargo are
the only airlines offering main deck capacity on routes between Canada and Germany.
While imports consist mainly of lobsters, seafood and alike delicacies but also armored cars, aircraft parts and some other industrial produce, the range of exported goods differs slightly from
those brought in. “Since they are the only provider of main deck capacity from Canada to Cologne we concentrate on larger and voluminous shipments that don’t fit into the lower deck compartments
of passenger aircraft,” illustrates Skyline’s Hassaan. He mentions horses, vehicles, construction machinery, industrial components and also pharmaceutical items. These goods, he says, are trucked
from all over Europe to CGN to be flown to Canada by Cargojet.
Hamilton and beyond
Hassaan goes on to say that his GSA job includes selling the entire network of the carrier. “Once in Hamilton and customs cleared the shipments are distributed across the whole country by
Cargojet.” Due to their tightly-knit domestic network these beyond-transports are done quite quickly, he assures.
Having said this he announces the doubling of the Cologne flights in about two weeks. “The lobster season is always running high shortly before Christmas due to rapidly increased consumer demand.
Cargojet’s operational and commercial answer to this seems to be a second weekly flight between Halifax and Cologne.
Heiner Siegmund
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