Qatar Airways Cargo Celebrates a Record Year for Salmon Shipments

The Oslo-Doha route is well supplied, with seven Qatar Airways passenger flights and six Boeing 777 freighter services per week, and the airline's cargo capacity is well stocked.

Salmon accounts for 95% of all perishable seafood (PES) on Qatar Airways aircraft departing from Scandinavia. Iceland and the Faroe Islands (Denmark) see some seafood traffic, including live king crabs, trout, and other seafood, while Norway handles the majority of the salmon trade. Norway is by far the world's top salmon exporter, with 1.3 million tonnes exported in 2021, the country's biggest year to date, and a segment value of EUR8.57 billion/US$9.28 billion.

"Salmon is a particularly delicate shipping product since it necessitates professional, sanitary handling in temperature-controlled settings and, above all, dependable, quick connections to its final destination." Qatar Airways Cargo not only has a global network of over 150 stations, but we also acted fast to assist Norwegian seafood producers when the flu reduced available belly space dramatically. Qatar Airways Cargo significantly increased its capacity to the Norwegian market in 2021 by introducing passenger freighters to the Norwegian seafood market, including Harstad-Narvik Airport in Evenes and Bod Airport in Northern Norway," said Rob Veltman, Vice President Cargo Europe at Qatar Airways.

"Our Operations team went above and above to meet the expectations of our customers," he continued, "resulting in a record-breaking uplift of over 68,944 kg on a single lower deck 777 passenger aircraft." In 2021, Qatar Airways Cargo shipped more than 46,000 tonnes of Norwegian seafood, a record high. Every day, the airline transports more than 125 tonnes of seafood from Oslo. Norwegian salmon is a delicacy that is enjoyed all over the world, and Qatar Airways Cargo ensures that it arrives in restaurants and supermarkets in the same fresh condition that it was sent in."

When it comes to seafood logistics, Qatar Airways Cargo and its Norwegian GSA partner, ECS Group subsidiary NordicGSA, are renowned air cargo experts. For three years in a row, they received DB Schenker's coveted Seafood Airline Award: 2018, 2019, and 2020.

"The DB Schenker Fish Airline Award is the only one where seafood farmers judge the airlines on how they manage perishables, service, quality, and proactiveness, among other things," Carl Christian Skage, Managing Director of NordicGSA in Norway, noted.

Our highest concerns are commodity-specific service, temperature control, and, most importantly, sustainability consciousness, which is a critical aspect, particularly in Scandinavia. That is why we have a program in place where all carbon emissions created by our operations in Norway, even trucking to our hub, are offset by Trefadder, Norway's largest BIO-carbon capture effort, which plants trees on our behalf," he added.

Qatar Airways Cargo transports Norwegian salmon via Doha's state-of-the-art perishable center to destinations across Asia: Seoul/South Korea (ICN), Bangkok/Thailand (BKK), Shanghai/China (PVG), Osaka/Japan (KIX), Narita/Japan (NRT), Hong Kong (HKG), Guangzhou/China (CAN); and the Middle East: Dubai/UAE (DXB), Doha/Qatar (DOH) (RUH).