New plane on DHL cargo routes

NORWALK, Connecticut: A new workhorse will soon start flying cargo for Southern Air Holdings Inc on behalf of DHL Express.

The company has taken possession of a new Boeing 777F—its fourth since 2010.

Southern Air describes the twin-engine freighter as having the most cargo capacity and longest flight times in the industry, making it possible to connect intercontinental markets overnight.

The 777F will travel DHL’s around-the-world service from Hong Kong to Los Angeles to Leipzig, Germany and then back to Hong Kong. Using this route, shipping time from the Asia-Pacific region to the US West Coast is one day. The new plane will be the second on this route. Southern Air’s two other 777Fs fly DHL Express’s Cincinnati-Bahrain-Hong Kong route.

It’s not just the plane’s cargo capacity (102 tonnes of revenue payload) that makes it attractive to Southern Air, says president and CEO Dan McHugh. It’s also the freighter’s fuel efficiency. Southern Air claims the freighter reduces fuel costs by as much as 25 percent on global routes.