Icelandair Cargo Connects Liege Airport with Boston

´Icelandic cargo has served the Belgian airport for years with 6 weekly flights to Keflavik. Of these, 3 take the direct route, whereas 3 stop over at East Midlands Airport. From Keflavik the aircraft on both the Wednesday and Saturday return flight continues to New York JFK, giving the Liege-based cargo community access to the North-American market. Beginning 22 January, these services were complemented by a flight linking Keflavik with Boston.

Seafood as driver
Driving this new service to Boston is increased demand of fresh seafood from Iceland, says Icelandair Cargo Managing Director, Gunnar Már Sigurfinnsson in a press release. “We have seen a year-on-year increase in seafood volumes to the U.S. market every year from 2011. We are now at the point where demand has surpassed our capacity despite our twice a week freighter to JFK and daily passenger flights to Boston and JFK. Seeing that the Boston area is the biggest market for Icelandic seafood it only made sense to add this service to Logan. Although inbound seafood is driving the new service, we are very excited to announce this to the Boston freight forwarding community and being the first to introduce a scheduled European all-cargo freighter service in the market.”

European gateway
Icelandair Cargo will run this schedule up until Easter, after which the company hopes to have a better feel for the market. “Our hope is getting strong support from the local freight forwarders. This way we can make this a whole year operation and possibly increase the frequency in the not too distant future,” says Gunnar.  For the cargo division Liege Airport is the only airport which is served in Europe, says Kristján Árnason, Station Manager Icelandair Logistics in Liege. “We truck cargo from all over Europe to Liege, supplemented by the belly capacity on our passenger flights from other European gateways.”

Marcel Schoeters in Brussels