DHL Global Forwarding (GF) announced an airfreight charter service it launched that will connect three continents —  Asia Pacific to Europe and the US.

The twice-weekly charter service managed by StarBroker, DHL's in-house charter team, originates from Chongqing in China and flies to Amsterdam, then Chicago in the US and then to Incheon in South Korea, before returning to China.

The logistics company said the new service was launched to meet increased demand for pharma and technology goods in the routes.

“While some passenger airlines have resumed operations, the situation in the airfreight market remains volatile – especially as belly capacity is still tight," said Thomas Mack, global head of airfreight DHL GF.

“As the leader in the airfreight market, DHL GF’s top priority is to provide our customers with sufficient and reliable airfreight capacity. Not only are the resilient, agile and reliable supply chains of highest importance for an economic recovery, but also in preparation for the availability of vaccines and other essential medical supplies during the pandemic.”

He noted that over the years, DHL has built up its expertise from globally certified facilities and staff to technologies that track shipments in real-time in addition to ensuring the integrity of such products throughout their journey.

"Getting the much-needed air capacity is the last piece in the value chain puzzle, so to speak, that ensures temperature sensitive products such as life-saving vaccines reach the communities-in-need," Mack added.

 DHL GF noted that South Korea has recently emerged as a medical export hub, seeing a 26.7% rise in the export of healthcare products year-on-year by 26.7% in the first half of 2020. Meanwhile, pharma goods was also up by 52.5%.

China, on the other hand, exported 28.5% more medical goods and equipment in the first five months of the year, compared to a year ago.

 In 2019, China, the Netherlands and the US were among the top ten importers and exporters of medical-related items.