Maersk Air Cargo (DJ, Billund) will begin flying between South Korea and the United States, having acquired three B767 freighters to service the routes and outsourced their operations to Amerijet International (M6, Miami International). Flights from Seoul Incheon will operate to Rockford and Greenville/Spartanburg International. Maersk Air Cargo rebranded from Star Air (Denmark) earlier this year.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Maersk Air Cargo already operates fifteen B767 freighters. Inherited from its former Star Air arm, the fifteen aircraft include five B767-200(ERBDSF)s, six B767-200(PC)s, two B767-300Fs, a single B767-200(SF) and one B767-300ER(BDSF). A further three leased B767-300Fs will join the fleet next year to be followed by two B777-200Fs in 2024. Those three leased B767-300Fs are now destined to fly between the US and China after plans to commence flights there this year were deferred. Until now, the airline has operated exclusively within Europe, however, it applied for a permit to fly to the US in September.
ch-aviation data indicates that two B767s have so far been handed over to Amerijet - N495MM (msn 67026) and N496MM (msn 67027) - while the third (reportedly msn 67025) is yet to be delivered to the Florida-based airline.
“We want to create more routing options and flexibility for customers looking to improve their air cargo supply chains,” said Maersk's Mike Meierkort recently when at the opening of the company's 61,000-square-foot Chicago Air Freight Gateway. Maersk Air Cargo says it has big plans for North America and settled on Chicago as its entry point because of the region's well-established distribution infrastructure, large-scale manufacturing operations, and proximity to a sizeable portion of the US population.
Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport also found favour with Maersk because the company already has a freight forwarding terminal there. The airport is also less congested than nearby Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson, and is regularly used by German freight forwarder Senator International, which Maersk acquired earlier this year.
