DHL EXPRESS BOLSTERS CAPACITY BETWEEN VIETNAM AND THE U.S. AS BILATERAL TRADE INCREASES

• New route is company’s first dedicated flight between Vietnam and U.S., providing 102 tons of additional capacity per flight for customers along trade route
• Operated by Kalitta Air, the dedicated Boeing 777F will provide up to 27% more capacity weekly for DHL Express customers

DHL Express, the world’s leading international express service provider, this week introduced a new route between Vietnam and the United States as bilateral trade increases. The flight, which departs Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City with its final destination at the DHL Express Americas Hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), is operated by Kalitta Air with a dedicated Boeing 777F that will serve the route once a week.

This new flight will offer about 102 tons of additional capacity per flight for customers.

“U.S.-Vietnam trade has seen a major boost, as businesses seek to diversify their supply chains and explore other major manufacturing centers in Asia-Pacific as part of their ‘China plus one’ strategy,” said Mike Parra, CEO of DHL Express Americas. “With Vietnam’s continued rise as a manufacturing hub for semiconductors, garments, electronics, and more, the new flight will help us grow with importers and exporters that continue to expand their global businesses by leveraging this important trade lane.”

Following a $360 million USD investment commitment between 2020 and 2022 to build new and expand existing facilities in key growth markets within the Americas region, with about $200 million USD dedicated to the U.S., DHL Express continues to expand its airfreight capacity to cater to rising shipment demand resulting from the e-commerce sector. Last year, the company added capacity into Canada, U.S. and Mexico, and out to Latin American countries with additional flights, expecting to increase volume capacity by about 30% in the DHL Express Americas network by the end of this year.

The new flight between the U.S. and Vietnam is part of a route that starts in Sydney and connects through Singapore and Japan before arriving at the DHL Express Cincinnati hub. The new route will add up to 27% of additional capacity, bringing the weekly total gross payload to over 940 tons from Vietnam.

“New, dedicated air routes are helping us maintain a highly reliable aviation network, so we can continue to respond quickly to market demand,” continued Parra. “We continuously evaluate the volume in all our markets, and optimize our routes to provide customers with the most efficient, time-definite international deliveries, despite the capacity crunch in the global supply chain.”

Vietnam continues to become the 9th largest trading partner of the U.S. as trade revenue between the two countries reached more than $111 billion in 2021, an increase of nearly $21 billion compared to 2020. In 2021, Vietnam's exports to the U.S. reached $96.29 billion, up 24.9% compared to 2020. The U.S. continues to be Vietnam’s largest export market, accounting for 28.6% of the country’s export earnings.

DHL Express operates over 280 dedicated aircraft with 15 partner airlines on over 2,200 daily flights across more than 220 countries and territories.