The United States yesterday awarded Polar Air Cargo the rights to fly to mainland China and gave additional slots to most of America's main air cargo carriers under the new Sino-US air services agreement.
New York-based Polar, the fourth US airline to gain all-cargo access to the booming mainland market, was also given nine of the 39 weekly flights to China available under the July agreement.
'This marks the first step in an unprecedented expansion in all-cargo aviation services between the US and China,' said Karan Bhatia, the US Department of Transportation's assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs. '[The awards] will benefit American shippers.'
Express giants United Parcel Service and Federal Express and Northwest Airlines were also given an immediate expansion of weekly flights and additional services from March 25. Northwest also has passenger rights to the mainland.
The Sino-US air cargo market was expected to grow faster than any other American sector for the next 20 years, according to the Transport Department.
Polar will begin offering a Shanghai-Chicago service on a charter basis from Wednesday and expects to have scheduled services in place next month. 'We are extremely excited about this,' Polar's vice-president (Asia-Pacific) Kersti Krepp said.