Cargolux increases service to Indiana

Indianapolis Airport Authority Air Service Director Chris Matney said the region’s 18-percent surge in air-export demand necessitated the additional route. But it’s a demand that’s typically not addressed by IND, he said.

“Surprisingly, of the over 180 million pounds of air cargo Indiana exported in 2010, less than 2 percent of the exports left from an Indiana airport,” Matney said in a statement. In fact, he said, “almost two-thirds of Indiana’s air cargo exports end up flying out of Chicago’s O’Hare airport, which is often challenged by congestion and unreliable flight schedules.”

Flying to Indianapolis is nothing new for Cargolux, however. The carrier originally teamed up with Roche Diagnostics and global freight forwarder DB Schenker in February 2006 to launch direct service from Luxembourg-Findel International Airport to IND; five months later, a subsequent flight was instituted.

“These two cargo flights have successfully operated for the past six years, bringing time- and temperature-sensitive import and export shipments directly to the region,” according to a press release. It recently became apparent that a third flight was needed, however.

Thurman Walker, general manager of DB Schenker Indianapolis, believes the new service has strong implications for Indiana’s export sector and the airfreight industry, in general. “Having this nonstop export flight provides a direct connection between our state and a globally strategic international market,” he said in a statement.

“This new service offers our customers additional flexibility in their supply chain and provides a reliable, customized end-to-end solution for their time- and temperature-specific products from a single source,” Walker continued.