Blanket International Scheduled Authority Granted

Source: http://www.aircargonews.net  02/13/2018

The US Department of Transport (DoT) has given its approval to Western Global Airlines' plans to expand its scheduled cargo operations beyond its current flights between the US and China/Hong Kong.

Earlier this month, the Florida-headquartered airline applied for permission to operate flights between the US and countries with existing open skies agreements with the country.

The application also asked permission for flights to transit intermediate countries and countries that in the future sign open skies agreements with the US.

After receiving no objections from other carriers, the DoT was able to approve the application with permission to run until February 13, 2020.

"We have decided to grant Western Global the requested exemption authority to serve all open-skies partners; that is, foreign aviation partners with which the US has entered into an Open-Skies Agreement where that agreement is being applied," the DoT said in its approval.

"We have also decided to grant to Western Global exemption authority to serve Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Cook Islands, New Zealand, Samoa, Singapore, and Tonga, each a signatory to the Multilateral Agreement on the Liberalization of International Air Transportation."

WGA said it would operate any new services utilising its fleet of 11 MD-11 and two B747-400F freighters.

WGA, which has until recently been mainly known as an ACMI and charter operator, won permission to start scheduled operations to China in July last year.