Florida headquartered National Airlines (NCR) is Cologne-Bonn Airport’s latest customer. The carrier serves the German airport five times a week on behalf of integrator UPS.
Simultaneously to the first landing of a National B747-400 freighter aircraft, CGN welcomed an Egyptair A330 passenger-to-freighter converted aircraft with a traditional water shower, in
appreciation of the airline’s 10th anniversary of serving the airport.
Cologne-Bonn’s Cargo Chief, Torsten Wefers is extremely busy these days since the peak season in air cargo does not leave him even time for a short interview. All he says when asked by
CargoForwarder Global about newcomer National Airlines, is that it is the first time the carrier has landed in CGN, much appreciated by the airport’s management. Since Monday (16NOV20), NCR
serves Cologne five times a week on the sector SDF-CGN-SDF. SDF is the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF) in Kentucky, and UPS’s global hub.
The flights are intended to cover transport peaks which traditionally occur in the 4th quarter of each year. Currently, however, there is an enormous demand for air transportation due to the
booming online business and the loss of much of the belly capacity of passenger aircraft that are grounded because of sluggish travel demand in Covid-19 times. Therefore, NCR freighters will be
seen in CGN only until Christmas Eve. If the services will be prolonged in the weeks thereafter is yet undecided.
10 years of MS flights to CGN
Parallel to the landing of the NCR B747-400 P2F, CGN welcomed an Egyptair (MS) A330F marking the 10th anniversary of MS cargo flights between Cairo and Cologne-Bonn. “Germany is our number
one market in Europe and CGN our main hub,” Khaled Youssef, the carrier’s Germany Cargo Manager, stated. He thanked his long-term GSA Skyline Air Service for their long and ongoing support
selling the freighter’s main deck capacity very successfully.
Recently there has been a change in export flows. “While in the past, most goods used to be unloaded in Cairo to be onforwarded to local customers, we now transit much more airfreight there,
which we then fly on to Thailand, India, South Africa, or to destinations on the Arabian Peninsula,” manager Khaled said.
Flown by a VIP Pilot
Egyptair Cargo operates 3 A330 P2F aircraft but has shelved plans to grow its freighter fleet for the time being. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it also utilized some of its passenger aircraft to
transport personal protective equipment and medical goods. The first related flights with both B777 and B787 pax freighters have been already successfully operated via CGN.
Incidentally, the MS freighter was flown by Captain Bassem Gohar, Chairman of Egypt Air Cargo, for whom it was the last flight as an active pilot due to age reasons. In the past ten years, Egypt
Air Cargo has operated roughly 3,400 flights to CGN and transported a total of around 100,000 tons of freight.
Heiner Siegmund
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