DSV Global and Huntsville International Airport

For DSV Global, Alabama’s uncongested and efficient Huntsville International Airport (HIA) offers a solution to cargo routing that is hard to match.

Huntsville International Airport (HSV) serves as an epicenter for DSV Global Transportation and Logistics’ air charter network, spanning four continents and partnering with some of the world’s largest all-cargo airlines operating from northern Alabama.

HSV was chosen as the US anchor airport for the strategies because of its “efficiencies,” says Mads Ravn, global executive vice president, head of Air Freight Procurement, DSV, a full-service worldwide logistics company.

“At Huntsville, we’re located on the tarmac. The arrival dock is 200 feet from the plane. We’re doing everything in one place—invoicing, Cubiscanning (cq) the dimensions, weighing, palletizing, loading the pallets on the aircraft and processing all the paperwork. “DSV has adopted a program that has been in place there for years. Essentially, it transports high value automobile and agricultural machinery parts manufactured in the Midwest and Southeastern US directly to Viracopas Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil via Huntsville International Airport.

The South American Routing

Actually, the program was launched 27 years ago by Panalpina, the huge air cargo-driven logistics company that DSV acquired in 2019, Ravn says. The original strategy called for the cargoes to be trucked to HSV, loaded on a plane, and flown to Miami International Airport, the busy but traditional gateway to Latin America. There it was offloaded and reloaded aboard another freighter and flown to Brazil.

DSV’s decision was to streamline the logistics strategy by eliminating Miami International to save time, money and handling and airfreighting the parts directly from Huntsville to Sao Paulo for sub distribution throughout Brazil and South America as needed.

Today, Ravn says DSV uses two scheduled chartered freighters to execute its strategy three times a week. One day, a LATAM A-330 freighter flies nonstop from Huntsville to Sao Paulo. The other two days a week, DSV loads the automotive and agricultural machinery parts aboard an Atlas 747 that flies transpacific from Hong Kong, stops in Huntsville, and goes on to Sao Paulo. “With the three freighter flights, we’re moving 180 tons of parts a week,” he adds.

Ravn declines to identify DSV’s customers in Brazil other than to say there are several and one “large” one who use the cargoes for “assembly and spare parts.” The program is running “very smoothly,” he adds, “and that’s what the customers appreciate. By bringing the outbound cargoes closer to Huntsville and not feeding everything down to a bottleneck in Miami, we saved time and trucking.”

Meantime, Ravn says DSV is not committed to a backhaul out of Brazil, however, “on a seasonal basis, we do carry flowers, perishables including seafood.”

The DSV executive gives high praise to Huntsville International Airport. “They are very accommodating and that’s why we are still there. They are a hub for DSV and for many years to come. We consider them partners.”

LATAM 767 Freighters

DSV has also teamed up with LATAM on a new 767 freighter service from Huntsville to Viracopas, Brazil. The return flight is routed from Viracopas through Bogota and Miami.’

“DSV has grown its air freight competencies and volumes over the last years and we continue to build on our strong and growing charter network,” said Ravn in a press release. “The recent Huntsville-Brazil service is another add-on which expands the DSV Charter Network to the resurging Latin American region from the uncongested Huntsville International Airport.”

In early September, DSV inaugurated a partnership with Qatar Airways Cargo that connects Huntsville International with the Middle East. The route for the new scheduled charter, called Gateway Star, originates in Mexico City, connects in Huntsville and Luxembourg to Doha, Qatar. The aircraft flown is a 747 freighter.

Ravn, in a press statement, said the “partnership signifies a remarkable step forward” which will give DSV’s customers “unparalleled connectivity and seamless access to the Middle East and the oil and gas industry.”

At the moment, DSV, with 75,000 employees in over 80 countries, operates 12 freighter flights weekly out of Huntsville, the executive vice president points out. A target commodity for the firm now is perishables, particularly pharmaceuticals.