CMA CGM Air Cargo, the newly-established air freight division of shipping and logistics company CMA CGM, has announced three new destinations as it seeks to accelerate the development of its network.

In a statement, the CMA CGM Group said the new destinations are Dubai, Beirut, and Istanbul — complementing its existing Airbus A330-200F-operated services to and from Liège, Chicago, New York, and Atlanta.

Services to new destinations by May 19

"Two months after its first air freight services were launched, CMA CGM AIR CARGO is now introducing regular connections between Liège (LGG) and Dubai (DWC) from May 19," CMA CGM said, noting that Dubai is a hub ideally located at the crossroads between Europe, Asia, and Africa, and it possesses all the latest infrastructure for handling goods requiring short transit times rapidly and reliably.

"With its services to Dubai, the CMA CGM Group can also provide its customers with a combined Sea-Air offer comprising shipping, logistics, and air freight. That will give them the benefit of an end-to-end, agile full-service offering," it added.

Meanwhile, CMA CGM AIR CARGO plans to start up regular services from Liège to Beirut (BEY) and Istanbul (IST) "over the next few weeks."

It noted that from its Liège base, CMA CGM AIR CARGO will offer rapid connection times between these new destinations and the United States.

Complementary air, shipping, logistics service

CMA CGM noted that its new airfreight division represents a major new component of the CMA CGM Group in both operational and commercial terms.

It is also a new milestone in the Group’s strategic development, with the aim of providing Group customers with a complementary range of services covering both shipping and logistics, it added.

"With the introduction of these three new destinations, CMA CGM AIR CARGO will be able to offer a broader range of services to meet our customers’ needs," commented Xavier Eiglier, executive vice president CMA CGM AIR CARGO.

"Strategically located at the crossroads between several continents, these new destinations will help speed up CMA CGM AIR CARGO’s development. As we demonstrated recently by shipping humanitarian relief from France to India, CMA CGM AIR CARGO enables the Group to deliver even more agile, full-service solutions to meet the most urgent needs," he added.

ECS Group, the world leader in commercial air freight services, will be in charge of selling capacity on CMA CGM AIR CARGO’s services to all its destinations.