Astral Aviation, a Nairobi-based cargo airline has entered a commercial partnership with Air Logistics Group to firm its expansion to Europe and the United States in 2023.
Air Logistics Group was appointed General Sales Agent (GSA) for Astral Aviation in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States from January 1, 2023, marking an end to Astral’s representation by Network Airline Services Group, Astral confirmed in a statement.
Astral’s CEO Sanjeev Gadhia highlighted that the partnership would allow Astral to offer more opportunities to its clients “with the objective of increasing market-share for its perishables into Europe and have additional online capacity for Astral’s cargoes from Europe into Africa”.
“We look forward to our partnership with Air Logistics Group, who will be responsible for promoting Astral Aviation in the strategic markets of Europe, UK and USA, and will cover Astral’s Intra-African Scheduled Network of 50 destinations which are served from its Nairobi Hub,” Gadhia said.
“Astral Aviation is an established and recognised quality Airline operating to and from Europe and within key trade lanes in Africa,” commented Stephen Dawkins CEO of Air Logistics Group.
“We are excited to connect our comprehensive network to theirs and to expand further the strong presence that Astral Aviation has in this region in the coming years,” Dawkins added.
Astral Aviation launch operator of world’s first A320 P2F and E190 Freighter
In February 2022, it was announced that Astral Aviation would become the launch operator for the first two of five Airbus A320 Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) aircraft sub-leased from Vaayu Group (Vaayu). At the time, the two A320 P2Fs were said to be the first Airbus aircraft in Astral’s fleet of freighters.
Astral Aviation signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nordic Aviation Capital (NAC) in July 2022 to lease the first two of Embraer’s 190F passenger-to-freight converted aircraft.
The deal with NAC was struck at the Farnborough International Airshow 2022.
Astral Aviation’s fleet comprises aircraft types such as the Boeing 747-400F, 757-200F 767-200F and 727-200F, as well as the Fokker 50F and McDonnell Douglas DC-9 Freighter.