Trade between Australia and New Zealand has been given an extra boost thanks to a new FedEx Express freight service.
The express transportation giant is launching a new trans-Tasman service running five times a week between Christchurch, Auckland and Melbourne.
It adds to the existing five flights on the Sydney and Auckland route each week and will be operated by Airwork with dedicated block space allocated to FedEx.
Customers in Australia and New Zealand will benefit from increased capacity and reliability to transport e-commerce, healthcare (cold chain), automotive, agricultural and other critical spare parts shipments.
Based on market projections, the company expects air cargo tonnage on these routes to increase by 7.7% AU to NZ and 7.8% NZ to AU in 2022.
FedEx Express Australasia vice president Peter Langley says the new operation is part of an effort to bring “better and stronger connections for customers”.
“Australian exports to New Zealand grew more than US$8 billion during 2021, while New Zealand’s exports to Australia grew to US$5.5 billion.
“With this additional service, we’ll have ten weekly flights enhancing connections for Aussie and Kiwi businesses including small and medium-sized businesses, looking to expand trade activity,” Langley says.
Key benefits from the new trans-Tasman service include:
- More time for Melbourne customers to prepare shipments. The cut-off time for customers in Melbourne is now 5pm, a two-hour improvement.
- Improved transit times. Customers in Christchurch will now have access to next-day international priority shipping service to Australia, while those in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane who ship to Christchurch will see a one-day improvement for international priorityfreight services.
- Acceptance of Dangerous Goods (DG) with new capability in Christchurch.
*Click here for more information on the new trans-Tasman service.
