Atlas Air (5Y, New York JFK) will end its partnership with Danish transport and logistics provider DSV Panalpina in July, cooperation it had renewed for a five-year term in 2015, sources told The Loadstar.
The contract covered B747-8F N850GT (msn 37570), which conducted operations based in Luxembourg. But when the coronavirus outbreak altered cargo as well as passenger transport, DSV Panalpina switched to utilising its Atlas Air-operated freighter between Huntsville International and Shanghai Pudong 3x weekly, Air Cargo World reported at the time.
Since then, it has regularly touched down also at Anchorage Ted Stevens and Seoul Incheon, ch-aviation analysis of Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows.
The aircraft briefly returned to Luxembourg for the first time in three months on June 2, but lacking its Panalpina livery. It had spent one month on the ground in Hong Kong International, from April 20 to May 23, which is probably when it was repainted, The Loadstar speculated.
Sources suggested that DSV Panalpina may recreate its air cargo network out of blocked space agreements rather than full charters, with Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) a possible supplier.
While Atlas Air declined to comment, the Danish company said: “We will continue to operate Panalpina’s air charter network, which has proven to be a strong value proposition to our customers. We actually have plans to reinforce and expand the network. We will release more information about this soon.”
However, in March three executives resigned from DSV, Lucas Kuehner, Matthias Frey, and Colin Wells, and last week the Independent Luxembourg Trade Union Confederation (Onofhängege Gewerkschaftsbond Lëtzebuerg - OGBL) announced that 88 of the firm’s jobs out of 148 would be lost at its Luxembourg hub.
“The introduction of a new digital management system will leave most of the staff unemployed from July 1,” the union said.
