DSV is adding more capacity in Asia in response to increasing Covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns in the region which is expected to further drag air cargo capacity.

The Danish forwarder said it is adding extra freighter capacity from Hong Kong and Singapore to address capacity issues brought by high demand, tighter coronavirus restrictions as well as the upcoming Chinese New Year holidays on February 1-3.

DSV will add two extra weekly frieghter flights, with 100 tonnes of capacity each, to its Hong Kong-Liege-Hong Kong loop, bringing its weekly flights on the route to three.

It has also introduced a new weekly route from Singapore to Los Angeles.

"Right now, the market is greatly underserved – especially out of Asia where the situation is being impacted these days by increased Covid incidents and by new restrictions. We are monitoring the situation closely, so we can continue to do what we can to keep our customers supply chains flowing," said DSV vice president and head of the DSV Air Charter Network, Mads Ravn.

"We are also introducing a new DSV Air Charter route from Singapore to Los Angeles (LAX), which can further relieve the pressure on some of the other hubs in the region and also bring a little more flexibility to our customers on our airfreight offerings out of Asia."

"At DSV, our finest job is to serve our customers, and they rely on us to provide them with reliable transport solutions. That is why we are now adding more capacity to the DSV Air charter route from Hong Kong to Liege and back to Hong Kong," the DSV executive continued.

The move of DSV comes as countries in Asia Pacific — Hong Kong in particular — issue tighter Covid-19 protocols to stem the spread of the Omicron variant. 

Piling to the already tight capacity due to lack of bellyhold space from the major cargo hub, Cathay Pacific Cargo earlier announced "very substantial reductions" to its long-haul cargo capacity in the first quarter — with no flights operating to Europe and just seven flights to the Americas per week.

Hong Kong has also halted all passenger flights from eight countries including the UK and the US amid the recent surge in the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

Its neighbour Macau, also announced temporarily banning flights from all destinations outside mainland China. Meanwhile, in the mainland, strict lockdowns have been implemented in Xi’an and Yuzhou as partial lockdowns are also ongoing in the major port city of Ningbo.