DHL and Polar Air Partner on TransPacific Trade

The global express and logistics provider will use Polar Air Cargo’s flights from the US to Asian destinations to upgrade its Time Definite product.

DHL Express has a Block Space Agreement with Polar that guarantees access to six Polar Air Cargo Boeing 747-400Fs that serve key destinations in both Asia and the US. Previously, June 2007, Polar entered a strategic transaction with DHL Express that gave DHL a 49% equity interest in the all cargo airline and a 25% voting interest.

As part of the partnership, DHL will use Polar Air's scheduled weekday flights from Los Angeles, Wilmington, and New York via Anchorage to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo. There is extended weekend scheduling with flights to Honolulu, Sydney, Sharjah and Leipzig.

DHL is also boosting its intra-regional air coverage in Asia by increasing the frequency of its dedicated Air Hong Kong flights from five to six times per week, a boost of 45 tons of cargo per week. Air Hong Kong is a 60/40 joint venture between Cathay Pacific and DHL. Routes covered are from Hong Kong to Nagoya, Taipei, Seoul and Singapore.

“The partnership with Polar Air Cargo enables DHL to significantly improve its Time Definite product offering and thus become more attractive to our customers on one of the world’s most important trade lanes,” comments DHL Express CEO, John Mullen. “Moreover, we are extending our TransPacific services to also include a connection to JFK, offering a Time Definite service from Asia to the US East Coast. This too will help boost our international services to and from the US.”