Panalpina and Atlas Air look back on a very long and successful cooperation that started with the launch of the 'Dixie Jet' over 15 years ago. The service provides regular flights between Panalpina's airfreight hubs in Luxembourg and Huntsville / AL. 'The product is well accepted in the market and adds considerable value to our customers, even more so in such difficult times as we are going through at the moment', states Robert Frei, Global Head of Product &'Procurement Air at Panalpina.
The 'Dixie Jet' service offers five frequencies per week, serving the Southern, Central and Southeast of the USA. The service comprises three flights from Luxembourg to Huntsville and vice versa and two flights from Luxembourg to Huntsville, Mexico, Huntsville and back to Luxembourg, with a stopover in Prestwick, Scotland. In Luxembourg, Panalpina offers a self-controlled connecting airfreight service to West Africa, thus connecting the most important Oil & Gas centers Houston, Aberdeen, Moerdijk and West Africa. Customers from the Oil & Gas industry benefit particularly from this unique service offering, which is also very popular among global and SME customers from the hi-tech, health care and automotive industries. Established mainly for pharmaceutical products are cooling facilities both in Luxembourg and Huntsville,'enabling a seamless door-to-door cool chain.
'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', emphasizes Robert Frei. 'In addition, as the Atlas Air planes are registered in the United States, we can offer our customers direct flights from Mexico to the US', he continued.
'Atlas Air, Inc. is extremely pleased to be extending our longstanding relationship with Panalpina that we began together over 15 years ago,' said William J. Flynn, President & CEO, Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc.' 'We are dedicated to continue to deliver unmatched service to Panalpina and their customers, offering them greater operational flexibility and performance with our state-of-the-art Boeing 747-400 freighter aircraft.'
The 'Dixie Jet' operation is part of Panalpina's unique own controlled network portfolio. This means that Panalpina not only manages the capacity of entire planes but also establishes the flight schedules according to customer demands. Also part of this system is a charter and emergency service that provides tailor-made ad-hoc airfreight services all over the world at 24 hours on 7 days.
