As reported yesterday (June 3) by Air Cargo News, Worldwide Flight Services (WFS), a SATS company, has signed a contract extension with Oman Air to provide cargo handling at Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport.
It will also be responsible for handling and trucking services connecting 11 regional airports throughout France (Paris Orly, Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Nice, Rennes, Strasbourg, Toulouse, and EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg).
Oman Air currently operates four direct Boeing 787-900 flights a week between Muscat and Paris, which carry a total of more than 7,500 tonnes of cargo a year.
The new contract was signed at the trade show Air Cargo Europe underway in Munich this week between June 2 and 5 by Oman Air’s head of cargo, Michael (Mike) Duggan, as well as John Batten, chief executive of gateway services, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia (EMEAA) and Laurent Bernard, vice president France for the handler.
Bernard commented: “Our team in France clearly understand the airline’s processes and service expectations and the responsibility to ensure the quality of Oman Air’s bespoke freight transportation solutions, including for special commodities such as pharma, fresh produce, valuables and dangerous goods.”
WFS supports Oman Air in its ability to offers its customers a full range of value-added services, including those supporting temperature-controlled healthcare products using WFS’s IATA CEIV Pharma and Good Distribution Practice (GDP)-certified Pharma Centre at Paris Charles de Gaulle.
WFS maintains a European Inspection Point for perishables and pharma shipments in Paris, as well as a dedicated live animal station.
New deals
Other handling deals signed of late by WFS have included long-term cargo handling contracts announced in April with Cathay Cargo for operations at Portland International and Dallas Fort Worth International airports in the US; a five-year deal with Emirates SkyCargo to handle its freight operations at Germany’s Frankfurt Airport, also revealed in April; and MASkargo resuming its cargo handling partnership with WFS in Paris to support the airline’s new daily flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
In the latter case, the two companies had previously partnered in the French capital until Malaysia Airlines withdrew from the route in January 2016.
