Service Announcements: NYK, Old Dominion, and Finnair and IAG Cargo

NYK completes first voyage of car transport service from Mexico, while Old Dominion expands in South Dakota and Finnair joins IAG’s Partner Plus.    NYK has completed the first voyage of its Trans Pacific Express Service (TPX Service), a car transport service linking Mexico, North America, and East Asia. 
   On Jan. 28, the car carrier Viking Drive departed Acapulco, Mexico, on the service’s inaugural voyage with finished cars that had been loaded in Mexico and North America. On Feb. 19, the vessel arrived in Yokohama to begin its East Asia off-load. 
   NYK said the new service will “attempt to accommodate demand for the export of finished cars from Mexico, in addition to car logistics for China, where demand for imports is growing.“
   Mexico is the world’s seventh largest automaker and the industry is growing rapidly as manufacturers continue to add new plants. Analysts forecast the country’s auto production will rise 35 to 50 percent to more than 4 million units by late this decade.

   Old Dominion Freight Line has opened a new less-than-truckload service center in Watertown, S.D., the company’s third in the Midwest state.
   The one-acre, 12-door service center will employ five.
   “This expansion will benefit our customers not only in Watertown, but throughout northeast South Dakota,” said Ken Petersen, manager of the Watertown service center, in a statement. In addition to Watertown, Old Dominion has facilities in South Dakota’s Rapid City and Sioux Falls.

   Finnair Cargo has joined IAG Cargo’s Partner Plus program. Through this program, member carriers agree to interline on each other’s planes. 
   The addition of Finnair to the program will provide IAG Cargo, a combination of British Airways World Cargo and Iberia Cargo, with additional capacity across the globe, including destinations in the Asia-Pacific region. Finnair’s customers will benefit from IAG Cargo’s network in the Americas and Africa. 
   Six carriers now form the Partner Plus program, including Qatar Airways, Japan Airlines, the Avianca group, and American Airlines.