Teleport, the logistics platform of low-cost carrier AirAsia, has added eleven weekly cargo-only flights serving regional destinations in Asia from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi (BKK) and Don Mueang (DMK) airports.
Cargo capacity for the flights, operated by AirAsia’s Thai AirAsia and Thai AirAsia X subsidiaries, is completely visible to airlines and shippers through blockchain-based platform Freightchain, a Teleport-subsidiary.
Teleport told Air Cargo World that adopting the Freightchain platform allows it to make the capacity on the flights available to other interline carriers without having to go through the traditional interlining process, which is manual and time-consuming.
“Freightchain enables buyers to programmatically search and discover different routes and itineraries available for booking on the network, including the interline itineraries created by Freightchain on demand by combining the flights of different airlines,” said Adrian Loretz, chief operating officer of Teleport. “It also enables buyers to make bookings by submitting their bid for desired itineraries online and receiving instant confirmation from airlines once the bid is accepted.”
Destinations served by the cargo-only flights from BKK include weekly flights to Colombo (CMB) and twice-weekly flights to Chennai (MAA), Dhaka (DAC) and Singapore (SIN). From DMK, weekly flights connect New Delhi (DEL) and Male (MLE), with twice-weekly flights to Kuala Lumpur (KUL).
Additional capacities on passenger flights operated by all of AirAsia’s subsidiary airlines except AirAsia India are also bookable through Freightchain, the carrier confirmed.
Launched in April of this year, Freightchain utilizes the blockchain platform Hyperledger Sawtooth to execute bookings and interline agreements. Teleport said it represents a strategic initiative and is intended to be an independent cargo booking platform.
Thai AirAsia X, which has 14 A330s, began flying an A330-300 chartered by shipping line Maersk to transport tyres from Thailand to Japan.
Thai AirAsia’s fleet consists of 62 A320 family aircraft.
