Possible fish flights from Norway

[Humberside]

Some potential good news

We also expect new initiatives such as, the likelihood of flying in fish as air-cargo direct from West Coast Norway to Humberside Airport.”

www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/14949/Norway_seafood_exporters_to_make_Grimsby_return.html

[pug]

Thats positive on the cargo front, hope something comes from it.

[pug]

FRESH fish from Norway could soon be appearing on the Grimsby market in the same way that Icelandic supplies have been coming in for years.

Simon Dwyer, chairman of the Humber Seafood Trade Corridor Group, said that because of its long coastline Norway was a nightmare for logistics companies, for all goods, not just seafood. This created a few challenges.

Speaking at the Norway Seafood Conference in Grimsby last week he said there were real and practical ways of opening trade routes.

The twin ports of Grimsby and Immingham current handled seafood from Norway totalling 37,500 tons and worth £115 million. This was out of total seafood throughput into the Humber worth £500-million.

Dwyer said there were a number of direct sea links between Norwegian ports and Grimsby and Immingham operated by several companies including Eimskip, DFDS, and Sea Cargo. He thought there was no reason why fish could not be brought down by road and shipped across the North Sea either from southern Norway or to Gothenburg in Sweden, which was conveniently located. To make a strong economic case, it was important that the ships bringing fish to the Humber took goods back to Norway.

“Crossing the North Sea makes good sense. There is also an air shipment solution. Humberside Airport, just a few miles from Grimsby, has a perishable food hub which is under-utilised at present. There is no reason why it should not received fish fillets flow in directly from Norway in the same way that Icelandic fish was flown down from Reykjavik."

www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/15113/Norway-Humber_fresh_fish_corridor_very_possible,_fish_buyers_told.html

[Humberside]

Theres clearly some 'traction' to look at starting flights, but I wonder who would operate them? I can't think of an obvious airline

[pug]

Neither can I, add the fact that such a flight would probably require a back load like the Icelandic flights do and it puts a spanner in the works.

Perhaps they could look at a passenger service, though would that have sufficient cargo handling for fish flights?

[Humberside]

I suppose a backload doesn't necessarily have to be from HUY. If another 'nearby', but not too nearby (i.e. EMA), airport could provide the backload that might be OK, as with the Sunday Icelandair service going to Liege. Or another option could be to truck cargo to HUY to act as the backload. Weren't Icelandair doing that just before the weekday flights got moved to EMA?

As for a passenger service I would guess most regional aircraft would not be able to carry any freight, or if they could it will be a small amount. That would mean a A320/B737 size operator such as Norweigan - but do they even carry cargo? And where would enough passengers come from to make the flight break even with a 150 seat+ aircraft - cargo alone would not be enough

Hope this comes off, but the more it's thought about, the less likely it seems that it will happen. And the two articles on this don't indicate that discussions are underway, just that the fish industry would like to see it happen. Big difference

[john2408]

A report on Look North today, saying that a contract had been signed, with a Norwegian Company to supply fish to Hull, so this rumour may now be happening.

[lbaspotter]

How about this for an idea.

Utilise a Jet2.com Boeing 737-300QC out of its LBA base. That way the aircraft fly's passengers duties through day and both Fish & Mail from Norway into Humberside & Leeds overnight.

Say operating as follows.
D/ Leeds @ 22:00 - A/ Bergen @ 00:15 Flight Carries Mail out to Norway from Leeds.
D/ Bergen @ 01:15 - A/ Humberside @ 02:15 Loads up and then drops of Fish
D/ Humberside @ 03:00 - A/ Leeds @ 03:30 Positions with Mail from Norway for sorting at Leeds..

I know its only an idea but it might work with the uplift cargo been required to make it work.