Delta Air Lines Cargo and Korean Air Cargo have started sharing space on board their transpacific flights as part of a new joint venture.
“We are excited to partner with Delta to create an unrivaled air cargo network across North America and Asia,” said Samsug Noh, Korean Air’s senior vice president and head of the Cargo Business Division, in a statement. “This is bolstered by Korean Air’s leading transpacific air freight network, as well as Delta’s nationwide schedule and sales network within the U.S.”
The joint venture transpacific routes will give freight forwarder customers of Delta and Korean Air access to more than 290 destinations in the Americas and more than 80 in Asia. The airlines collectively carried 269 million tons of cargo on board their transpacific passenger plane flights in 2017.
The airlines expect to transport a diverse range of products on board their joint venture transpacific flights, including semiconductors, perishables and e-commerce shipments from the U.S. to Seoul and other Asian destinations and to the United States an abundance of mobile phones, auto parts and other electronic shipments.
Korean Air currently offers the largest air freight capacity in the transpacific. From Seoul, Delta is the only U.S. carrier to offer nonstop service to Seattle, Detroit and Atlanta and is scheduled to offer a similar service to Minneapolis in 2019.
Earlier this year, Delta and Korean Air co-located in a new terminal at Seoul’s Incheon International Airport.