DHL has won a multimodal contract to transport Airbus A320-family aircraft parts from Germany to the US.
Air cargo will form an important part of the supply chain deal, starting in early 2015, which sees a total of 80,000 tonnes moved by air, ocean and road freight from the Airbus production site in Hamburg to the US final assembly line in Mobile, Alabama.
Volker Oesau, CEO Middle Europe, DHL Global Forwarding, said: "The ocean and air freight transportation of sensitive aircraft parts demands special considerations such as safety clearance on ocean freighters, flatness of the ground and limited acceleration forces.”
Due to the sensitivity of the aircraft components, the parts will be fixed on specifically designed transport racks.
Major aircraft components, including fuselage and wings, will be shipped via feeder vessel from the Airbus site in Hamburg to the port of Bremerhaven, where they will be loaded on to a container ship.