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Western Global granted rights to fly scheduled US-China air cargo

FLORIDA's Western Global Airlines, the ACMI carrier founded in 2013 by Southern Air's Jim Neff, has been given the greenlight to begin scheduled cargo services between the United States and China.

In its decision issued on Wednesday, June 7, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) said that in the circumstances presented, it found Western Global qualified to provide the scheduled foreign air transportation proposed in its request for exemption authority.

"Western Global has provided all-cargo charter flights between the United States and China and Hong Kong," it said. "The scheduled foreign air transportation services authorised by exemption here are not markedly different in terms of aircraft size or stage length from the carrier's currently authorised operations under its existing certificate authority."

Western Global had earlier requested the exemption to allow it to fulfill an urgent contract for a client requiring weekly widebody cargo services to both Hong Kong as well as unspecified points on the mainland.

Despite opposition from Atlas Air, the DOT granted Western Global rights to operate scheduled foreign air cargobetween US, via any intermediate points, and China.

Atlas Air had argued that Western Global's proposed scheduled all-cargo service constituted a "substantial change in operations necessitating a DOT fitness review".

Atlas also brought into question Western Global's financial fitness, requesting that the DOT ascertain "whether Western Global meets the Department's financial fitness standards," according to the filing.

Western Global said it had submitted financial fitness data, adding that it was only seeking authority because of "the peculiar rules" of the Chinese and Hong Kong civil aviation authorities.

"Atlas is clearly less interested in the department's enforcement than it is in delaying, or suppressing altogether, additional US carrier competition in the Asian all-cargo market," it said.