Yangtze River Express Opens Chengdu – Paris Freight Link

Chinese cargo carrier Yangtze River Express will this week inaugurate a new scheduled freight link to Europe from Shanghai and Chengdu, the latter city host to this month’s Routes Asia conference. The airline will offer a three times weekly link between Shanghai and Paris with intermediate stops in Chengdu and Prague from April 3, 2012. It will use Paris Vatry Airport in the French capital, providing the facility with its first non-European originating cargo flight.

The route is expected to bring between 20,000 and 25,000 tonnes of cargo into Europe, mainly hi-tech and perishable goods which had previously had to be transported to Beijing and Shanghai before its transit to Europe. The launchfollows more than 18 months of negotiations between Paris Vatry and officials from Sichuan Province, who have been eager to open up a direct connection into Western markets, according to airport sources. The route will be served by a Boeing 747-400F.

For more information on this month's Routes Asia conference in Chengdu, click here.