RUSSIA's largest cargo airline, AirBridgeCargo, has added a third weekly cargo departure from Avinor Oslo Airport, Norway to cater for seafood exports to South Korea.

Director cargo at Avinor, Martin Langaas, said: 'AirBridgeCargo is an important part of our aim to facilitate more capacity for the Norwegian seafood industry to our largest trading partners in Asia. Freighter routes are boosting the competitiveness of Norwegian seafood.'



The new Boeing 747-8F flight to Seoul will go via Moscow, Russia, reports London's Air Cargo News.



In 2018, AirBridgeCargo carried seafood with an estimated export value of KRW500 million (US$418 million) on its two weekly freighter departures from Oslo Airport.



'With the new departure, capacity is estimated to increase by another KRW250 million in annual export value,' said Mr Langaas.



The new departure will be operated on Tuesdays in addition to the airline's existing Tuesday and Friday departures from the airport. With the added capacity, AirBridgeCargo will be able to offer the market close to 230 tonnes of seafood capacity from Oslo Airport on Tuesdays.



The new service comes just days after the airport operator reported that a deal with cargo handler WFS for the operation of a new seafood centre at the airport had fallen through.



Also, last week, the first non-stop (belly) service between Oslo and Beijing was launched, which the airport hopes will also prove attractive to seafood shippers.


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