The trial run flight of China Southern Airlines' Guangzhou-Amsterdam cargo service recently took off.

The flight carried over 90 tonnes of freight, left Guangzhou at 1114 hrs, reaching Amsterdam at 2300 hrs. The cargo was carried to European destinations on China Southern's own intermodal trucks after it landed in Amsterdam.

The service will be officially launched in July, offering four flights a week on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flight times are 12 and a half hours- that's two and a half hours less than other services from Shanghai via Beijing. The new service is also said to enjoy a better punctuality because China Southern is based in Guangzhou.

During the first quarter of this year, China Southern's Guangzhou transshipments surpassed 6,000 tonnes, taking up 16.9 per cent of the total of the carriers' freight transported from Guangzhou.

Source: schednet