Air France Adds Cargo Flight at D/FW

March 6, 2006
The Boeing 747-400, which will go from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Mexico City to D/FW and back to Paris, will carry, among other things, racehorses from Texas back to Europe and the Middle East.

Mar. 3--D/FW AIRPORT -- Air France plans to start a new weekly cargo flight from Dallas/Fort Worth Airport on April 1.

The Boeing 747-400, which will go from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Mexico City to D/FW and back to Paris, will carry, among other things, racehorses from Texas back to Europe and the Middle East.

The new addition is expected to have a $3.5 million economic impact, according to D/FW Airport.

"This just makes sense for Air France," said Jean-Yves Cap, director of Air France Cargo USA, in a prepared statement.

"We did a survey of the cargo market and saw a need that we could fill."

Air France will shift one of its three weekly flights from Houston to D/FW, Cap said in the statement.

In addition, China Cargo Airlines, based in Shanghai, will add two more flights at D/FW beginning in April, Joe Lopano, D/FW's executive vice president of marketing and terminal management, announced Thursday at the airport's monthly board meeting.

A third carrier, Air China Cargo, which is based in Beijing, has also expressed interest in a D/FW route, Lopano said after the meeting. Although a deal has not been signed, he said an agreement could come within 60 days.

"Cargo is very important to the airport," Lopano said.

"It's growing to almost 50 percent of our landing fee revenues."

David Wethe, (817) 685-3803 [email protected]