Great Wall will commence UK operations with three ad hoc flights on April 26th & 30th and May 3rd, followed by a full scheduled service four times per week beginning on May 10th. All flights will operate Manchester ' Dubai ' Shanghai (Pudong), using the airline's B747-400 nose-loading freighters.
Inbound, the services to the UK will route via Amsterdam where cargo can also be loaded ' providing the station with 4 further 747F flights in addition to its six weekly 747F departures to Shanghai via Seoul (Incheon).
EuroGSA already represents Great Wall through its offices in the Netherlands (where it is based) and Germany, with plans under way to open further branches in Stockholm and Malmo. The company is headed by Arnold van de Bosch, whose 25 year airfreight career has included positions at Cargolux, Nedlloyd and DHL.
In the UK, EuroGSA has launched a new subsidiary with bases at London Heathrow and Manchester, headed by Jennifer Smith as Managing Director. She was most recently Regional Cargo Manager, Northern Europe and Western Asia for Continental Airlines, and has also worked for Singapore Airlines, Dunwoody Airline Services and wholesaler AMI.
EuroGSA UK will provide Great Wall Airlines with a total management service including sales and marketing, reservations, administration, accounting and supervision of handling and trucking.
Says Jennifer Smith: 'We are very excited at the potential here for Great Wall Airlines. Great Wall is offering maindeck capacity direct to Dubai and Shanghai, with an impressive network of interline and trucking services which enable us to carry maindeck pallets through to all key destinations throughout China. We are already receiving tremendous interest from major agents, even for the pre-launch flights.'
She continues: 'In addition to the four flights per week from the UK to Shanghai, we can also offer capacity to Seoul (Incheon), using Great Wall's six weekly departures from Amsterdam. We will offer a fast scheduled trucking service to connect to these flights.'
EuroGSA says it will compete hard for traffic from the UK and Ireland. Concludes Jennifer: 'This is a very competitive market but Great Wall's combination of keen pricing, maindeck service and regular capacity will make a major impact here.'
Great Wall Airlines is EuroGSA's launch customer in the UK, but the company is already actively seeking further airline contracts.
Great Wall Airlines is a Sino-Singapore joint venture cargo airline based in Shanghai, owned 51% by the Beijing Aerospace Satellite Applications Corporation, 25% by Singapore Airlines Cargo Pte., Ltd., and 24% by Dahlia Investments Pte., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings (Pte.), Ltd.
