Southern gets new 777Fs for DHL service

   Southern Air Holdings, Inc. on Tuesday said it will take delivery of two Boeing 777Fs this month to be used on DHL Express new round-the-world service from Hong Kong to Los Angeles to Leipzig, Germany, and back to Hong Kong.
   The aircraft will be third and fourth 777Fs in Southern’s fleet.
   Southern Air is the only ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance) operator to fly the 777F. Southern Air’s first two 777Fs have flown the Cincinnati-Bahrain-Hong Kong routes for DHL since September 2011.
   “Our 777 partnership with Southern Air has been very effective to date,” said Stephen Fenwick, CEO Americas, DHL Express. “Their performance reliability has been high, and we are pleased to be expanding our relationship with the start-up of this second 777 round-the-world route, which will also take full advantage of the aircraft’s long-range payload capability and fuel efficiency.
   “The new daily service routed Hong Kong-Los Angeles-Leipzig-Hong Kong will reduce transit times for DHL customers in much of Asia to the U.S. West Coast, and will enable DHL to offer the latest possible pick-up times in key West Coast cities for many customers shipping to European destinations.”
   The 777 freighters, which have payload capacity of more than 100 metric tons, are designed to operate at a 17 to 28 percent fuel-per-ton advantage to other freighters and have the longest range of any twin-engine freighter on the market.