October 26 - The global forwarding and logistics group Panalpina and its long-time airline partner Atlas Air have renewed their cooperation agreement.
Within this cooperation, Panalpina provides own-controlled capacity between Europe, North America and Mexico and links the company's oil and gas hubs. The capacity of the service called "Dixie Jet" is managed by Panalpina while the Boeing 747F freighter aircrafts are operated by Atlas Air.
"Dixie Jet" is now more than 15 years old and provides regular flights between Panalpina's airfreight hubs in Luxembourg and Huntsville. "The product is well accepted in the market and adds considerable value to our customers, even more so in such difficult times as we are going through at the moment", states Robert Frei, global head of product & procurement air at Panalpina.
The "Dixie Jet" service offers five frequencies per week, serving the Southern, Central and Southeast of the USA. The service comprises three flights from Luxembourg to Huntsville and vice versa and two flights from Luxembourg to Huntsville, Mexico, Huntsville and back to Luxembourg, with a stop-over in Prestwick, Scotland. In Luxembourg, Panalpina offers a self-controlled connecting airfreight service to West Africa, thus connecting the most important oil and gas centres of Houston, Aberdeen, Moerdijk and West Africa.
"We are continuing the 'Dixie Jet' because a thorough evaluation of the service package has justified our confidence to operate such a service commercially viable and we also see a high demand from our customers", emphasizes Robert Frei. "In addition, as the Atlas Air planes are registered in the United States, we can offer our customers direct flights from Mexico to the US", he continued.
The "Dixie Jet" operation is part of Panalpina's unique own controlled network portfolio. This means that Panalpina not only manages the capacity of entire planes but also establishes the flight schedules according to customer demands. Also part of this system is a charter and emergency service which provides tailor-made ad-hoc airfreight services all over the world at 24 hours on 7 days.
