Matheson Flight Extenders has signed a freight consolidation agent agreement with Cathay Pacific to provide US import/export air cargo services at Portland International Airport in Oregon.
Cathay Pacific Cargo this month (November) launched a twice-weekly scheduled Boeing 747-8 freighter service between its Hong Kong home hub and Portland, the Asian carrier’s 18th cargo station in the Americas.
The US west coast hub will be served by a Hong Kong-Anchorage-Los Angeles-Portland-Anchorage (tech stop)-Hong Kong rotation every Thursday and Saturday.
The subsidiary of Sacramento-based Matheson Trucking currently provides airport terminal handling services for US mail in Portland.
“This is an exciting opportunity for Matheson to once again expand into the international freight arena,” said Charles Mellor, chief operating officer for Matheson, adding: “We handled similar services for Asiana Airlines and are proud to be a key facilitator in the partnership between the Port of Portland and Cathay Pacific.”
Mellor said Cathay contacted Matheson about providing consolidation services.
Mellor continued: “We quickly presented a bid and began negotiations. The referral was a result of our previous partnership with Asiana. We have the ramp space to park a 747 close to our hanger, making it more convenient to load and unload the aircraft.”
Several regional manufacturers, such as Nike, Columbia Sportswear and Intel, are interested in this direct air cargo service, said Matheson.
Product categories that could be transported from Portland to Hong Kong include semi-finished footwear and apparel, electronics and perishable goods like blueberries, cherries, Dungeness crab and oysters.
Cathay Pacific expects to carry 40 to 60 tons of cargo from Portland every month, “even more as demand rises”, said Matheson.
Airport officials said that east Asia markets account for over half of Oregon’s air exports, valued at $4.3bn, that are currently being shipped through other airports.
Matheson provides local, intermediate, and long haul road services and also has operations at 27 airports across the country throughout the year for the United States Postal Service (USPS).
