Panalpina, Atlas Air Renew Freighter Pact

The global forwarding and logistics group Panalpina and its long-time airline partner Atlas Air renewed their cooperation agreement.

Under the agreement, Panalpina provides capacity between Europe, North America and Mexico and links the company’s oil and gas hubs. Panalpina manages the “Dixie Jet” service while Atlas operates the 747 freighters. The cooperation began more than 15 years ago.

The “Dixie Jet” service offers five frequencies per week, with three flights from Luxembourg to Huntsville, Ala., and back 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 oil and gas centers Houston, Aberdeen, Moerdijk and West Africa. Customers from the hi-tech, health care and automotive industries also use the service. Cooling facilities in Luxembourg and Huntsville enable a seamless door-to-door cool chain for pharmaceutical products.

“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,” said Robert Frei, global head of product & procurement air at Panalpina. “In addition, as the Atlas Air planes are registered in the United States, we can offer our customers direct flights from Mexico to the U.S.”

Contact Thomas L. Gallagher at tgallagher@joc.com.