Air freight is set to soar at Durham Tees Valley Airport

Jan 28 2010 by Sue Scott, Evening Gazette

KLM is to introduce freight on inbound flights to Durham Tees Valley Airport.

It will be the first time in two years that DTVA has handled direct deliveries of international cargo, the last of which disappeared just weeks after owner Peel Holdings unveiled ambitious plans to build a freight distribution park to help drive traffic through the terminal in 2008. Progress on the Skylink Business Park has now ground to a virtual standstill.

KLM’s twice-daily cargo service, which will operate on a six-month trial basis on two of its three daily feeder services to Schipol, was first mooted in October by DTVA-based, Camair.

The small cargo handler, formerly known as BSF, was acquired by Casper Shipping, Teesport’s biggest agency, around five years ago.

Chairman Kevin Shakesheff said it was important for businesses to get behind the new service.

“We obviously have a vested interest, but I genuinely think this airport has huge potential,” he said. “We need to campaign to keep as much as we can coming in and out of it - whether that’s passengers or cargo.”

KLM, which has successfully introduced freight services on other regional routes - notably to Newcastle last April, which will handle around 20t this year - said it was looking to follow the footprint of its passenger services, which have expanded across the UK as competitors abandoned increasingly costly connections to Heathrow. Most recently, KLM opened up a service from Schipol to Liverpool John Lennon airport, also owned by Peel.

Andrew Galloway, KLM cargo account manager for the north of England, said the service - which will accept individual parcels of up to 70kg - was likely to appeal to businesses dealing in high value items with limited life and time-sensitive deliveries.

“We are looking for niche markets,” he said. “In the Tees Valley area you have the petro chemical industries, but on the Humber we are even looking at fisheries. If you want to get salmon to dining tables in New York, you want to get it there before it goes off.”

If the trial was successful, the company would look to introduce an outbound service.

The majority of existing airfreight handled at DTVA is trucked north from London terminals.

“If you supply into London Heathrow getting it up to the North-east means road haulage. We can get it there 24 hours quicker,” said Mr Galloway.

Mr Shakesheff said the cost of shipping small items by air had fallen dramatically. “People are often surprised - it’s greener, too, compared to road haulage,

“Most of these cargos are already going out through other airports. What we want businesses to do in the Durham Tees Valley area is make sure they ask for it to come here.”