A year after IAG launched a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner passenger flight between London Heathrow and Kuala Lumpur, the joint Anglo-Spanish carrier concern’s freight operation, IAG Cargo, has confirmed that the service has “exceeded expectations”.
A statement from the freight carrier said that the Malaysian capital has proved “a valuable gateway for manufacturers and high-tech shippers”.
Demand for capacity from shippers of high-value pharmaceutical freight has also been high, it informed.
Since the launch of the new route to the Southeast Asian gateway in May last year, IAG Cargo has seen weekly tonnage volumes of Constant Climate shipments out of the Asia Pacific region increase by an average of 50% over the previous year’s volumes.
Similarly, pharma traffic into the region have seen an average 30% weekly rise in comparison to the same period of 2015.
Pharma demand on the route was supported by the launch of a new IAG Cargo Constant Climate-enabled station opened in Kuala Lumpur in December last year.
David Shepherd, head of commercial for IAG Cargo, commented: “One year on, this route continues to offer real benefits for our customers with high technology goods, machine parts and raw materials driving both imports and exports.
“More recently we have seen significant demand for specialist pharmaceutical transportation and following significant investment we are now able to service that demand though our Constant Climate centre in Kuala Lumpur.
“This addition brings our temperature sensitive network to 110 stations across the globe,” he observed.
The carrier offers up to 22 tonnes of capacity on each daily flight to Kuala Lumpur.
