Bakkafrost air freight service gets ready for take-off

Bakkafrost has unveiled the white and blue livery of the Boeing 757-200 which will carry its salmon to the United States and other overseas markets.

The company decided 18 months ago to launch its own air service capable of bypassing expensive and time-consuming transit hubs such as Heathrow.

Bakkafrost, which also has extensive salmon farming operations in Scotland, has established a subsidiary called FarCargo and is about to purchase the Boeing 757, which has a range of about 7,000 miles.

FarCargo said the plane’s maiden trip is planned to take place in two to three months, with the first scheduled flight route set to take fish from the Faroe Islands to New York.

The subsidiary admitted that there had been a number of challenges in preparing the new transport facility, including finding the right aircraft and obtaining all the necessary permits.

FarCargo Managing Director Birgir Nielsen said: “This is a great day for us. We are pleased that we have reached this stage and we are now looking forward to starting actual operations.”

FarCargo chairman and Bakkafrost CEO Regin Jacobsen called the launch of the new air freight business “a new chapter in Faroese trade history”.

“The aim is to deliver fresh salmon of the best quality to both the US, Israel and other far-away markets, a mere day after the fish was swimming in our fjords,” Jacobsen added, stressing the importance of the new venture Bakkafrost’s further development.

“Buyers such as Israel and the American sushi market are looking for fresh products, and with this much shorter transportation route, we can provide our customers with the freshest products on the market.”