ATRAN Airlines, the all-cargo carrier with the fleet of Boeing 737 freighters within Volga-Dnepr Group, introduced a freighter call to connect Xi’an (China) and Cologne (Germany).

The connection will be offering dedicated solutions for various types of cargo, including e-commerce shipments, onboard Boeing 737-800BCF capable to guarantee up to 23 tonnes of cargo capacity per flight. With the flight lasting over 12 hours one-way, there will be tech stops in Russia for refuel, both in the airports which are part of ATRAN’s network – Krasnoyarsk and Moscow (Vnukovo).

Vitaliy Andreev, General Director of ATRAN Airlines, comments: “With cargo operations being pandemic induced last year we had to suspend our operations ex Xi’an and concentrate on other destinations. This year we decided to re-introduce the flights amid the growing market volumes ex China to Europe and revival of regular and stable traffic. Cologne is among a few cargo-friendly airports in Europe which managed to upscale its freight infrastructure, attract required resources and nurture manpower. Since 2012 we have built trusted partner relations with the airport and terminal handling team and are happy to be back on track in the interests of our customers”.

“ATRAN’s decision to link Xi’an with Cologne is fully in line with our clear ambition to further boost our China-related cargo traffic. We already experience an increasing number of Chinese forwarders using Cologne/Bonn as an alternative option to EU airports hit by congestion,” says Torsten Wefers, Cologne/Bonn’s director of cargo.

ATRAN Airlines offers its customers dedicated solutions for transportations of various types of cargo – general, e-commerce, dangerous goods, live animals and others. The company operates a fleet of Boeing 737 freighters and links the cities of China with Russia and Europe. It has recently enlarged its fleet of B737 freighters which now consists of 3 Boeing 737-400SF and 6 B737-800BCF.