Cargolux has launched a weekly flight between Luxembourg and Tokyo’s Narita International Airport.

According to Cargolux, the new flight is operated with a Boeing 747-8F under a reciprocal codeshare agreement with Nippon Cargo Airlines.

“Japan has long played an important role in Cargolux’s Far East network and we are looking forward to supporting Japan’s trade lanes to and from Europe,” said Richard Forson, chief executive officer of Cargolux.

The Cargolux flight departs Luxembourg every Tuesday evening and arrives at Narita on Wednesday afternoon, while the return flight is routed via Incheon and Novosibirsk, arriving back in Luxembourg on Thursday morning.

NCA also operates another flight between Narita and Luxembourg, but on a different day of the week, offering additional market opportunities for both airlines on the Europe-Narita sector while at the same time promoting competition between the partner airlines.

Major imports at Narita include cars, communications equipment, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and electronic components, while exports include automobile parts, semiconductors, electronic components, machinery and scientific optical equipment.

Cargolux began flying to Japan in 1985 and had already been cooperating with NCA through a codeshare and space-swap agreement on some of each other’s flights from Europe to Japan.