April 28 - Panalpina is adding calls to Baku, Azerbaijan with scheduled chartered flights operated by Silk Way West Airlines and flying between Luxembourg and Shanghai.
The 747-8 freighter flights will now call in Baku four times a week. Panalpina already offered a midweek scheduled charter from Luxembourg to Shanghai via Baku and back, but the forwarder has now introduced a second rotation on the weekend as well.
"This is a two-way, twice-weekly connection with blocked space in both directions," said Sou Ping Chee, Panalpina's head of air freight for Asia Pacific.
The aircraft are particularly well suited for the transport of oversize oil and gas equipment and temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals, said the global forwarder.
Slavey Djahov, head of air freight for the Middle East, Africa and CIS (MEAC) at Panalpina, added: "We deliver equipment from Luxembourg to Azerbaijan for the country's main oil and gas fields east of Baku in the Caspian Sea."
Panalpina's services between Luxembourg and Baku, and Baku and Shanghai, are called Caspian Star and Panda Star respectively.
