Amazon launches new air freight service from Italy to Poland and Spain
Amazon has launched the fourth air freight route from Katowice Airport, Poland’s key regional freight hub. It links the Polish Silesia with the Italian cities of Milan and Catania as well as with Madrid the capital of Spain. The new air freight service will be performed by ASL Airlines, the European major aircraft operator.
Katowice Airport is developing its network of air freight connections. Last week ASL Airlines, the Irish-based aviation group that is focused on charter flights and wet-lease for scheduled operations, on behalf of Amazon inaugurated a new route that connects three countries: Italy, Poland and Spain. The company’s Boeing 737-400F flies between four airports in the following way: Milan-Malpensa – Catania – Katowice Airport – Madrid – Milan-Malpensa. Early in the morning of 3 August, the aircraft landed at Katowice Airport. After four hours needed for handling operations, it departed towards Madrid.
Amazon in Katowice
The new air freight connection is the fourth route at Katowice Airport, which is operated by ASL Airlines and Bluebird Nordic on behalf of Amazon, and the third one that has been launched for the e-commerce giant since the beginning of July. On 6 July, Bluebird Nordic started to fly between Italy, Poland and France via the following route: Milan-Malpensa – Cagliari – Katowice Airport – Paris de Gaulle – Milan-Malpensa.
Two weeks later, on 20 July, ASL Airlines inaugurated another new route: Katowice Airport – Hanover – Milan-Malpensa – Hanover – Katowice Airport. At the end of 2020, ASL Airlines opened its first flight to Katowice on behalf of Amazon. It links three airports in the following order: Katowice Airport – Cologne-Bonn – East Midlands – Cologne-Bonn – Katowice Airport.
Air freight hub in Katowice
Katowice Airport is the largest regional freight airport in Poland. It handled 20,369 tonnes of freight in 2020. For the current year, the Upper Silesian Aviation Group (GTL), which operates Katowice Airport, has forecasted a growth of up to 30,000 tonnes. Currently, the Polish airport has 10 scheduled air freight connections that are running by or on behalf of Amazon (four routes), Lufthansa Cargo/RFS (two routes), UPS, TNT, DHL Express, FedEx (one route per operator).
The six remaining connections are: Frankfurt – Katowice Airport – Frankfurt (Lufthansa Cargo/RFS), Vienna – Katowice Airport – Vienna (Lufthansa Cargo/RFS); Cologne-Bonn – Katowice Airport – Kolonia-Bonn (UPS); Liege – Katowice Airport – Gdańsk – Riga – Liege (TNT); Leipzig – Katowice Airport – Leipzig (DHL Express); Paris – Katowice Airport – Paris (FedEx).