In order to meet fast-growing demand for e-commerce in the region, DHL Express has made several upgrades to its Vietnam and Malaysian air freight services.

As a first step, the express carriers are replacing the Hong Kong-Ho-Chi Minh-Penang route with a direct flight from Hong Kong to Penang as well as a direct flight between Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh. The aircraft will be an Airbus A300 and have a capacity of 62 tons per flight. Between Hong Kong and Penang, the carrier will upgrade the aircraft route from a Boeing 737-400 to a Boeing 737-800 to add capacity to a total of 54 tons per flight.

Ken Lee, CEO, DHL Express Asia Pacific said: “The findings in our recently launched white paper attest to the surge across B2C and B2B e-commerce shipments that we are witnessing as tech-savvy digital natives begin to make up the bulk of merchants and consumers across the world, and also in Asia. This has driven a shift in expectations about e-commerce – customers want top quality service, speed, reliability, convenience and flexibility,”

“By dedicating flights to Ho Chi Minh City and Penang, and upgrading our aircraft for Hanoi, our customers in these markets will continue to enjoy the quality service that they have come to expect from us as we seek to deliver their shipments within a day.”

Malaysia and Vietnam have seen surges in demand for their e-commerce products. Malaysia has seen an 87% growth in demand and Vietnam, 46%. Across Southeast Asia, e-commerce revenues are set to hit $172 billion by 2025.

“We have been paying close attention to shipment volume trends, and constantly identifying gaps to further enhance our transit times. Given that international air capacity still remains limited in Asia Pacific due to shortage of belly space capacity, we have been taking decisive steps to invest in additional flight routes and freighters to help ensure we have sufficient capacity to maintain our service to our customers,” said Sean Wall, Executive Vice President, Network Operations & Aviation, DHL Express Asia Pacific.

Chee Choong Ng, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of DHL Express Hong Kong and Macau, said, “DHL continues to proactively address the ongoing air cargo demands from Hong Kong to the rest of the world, including Malaysia and Vietnam. We are excited to have our state-of-the-art facility at the Central Asia Hub in Hong Kong to support these two new routes, ramping up the capacity, catering to the growing demands and more importantly, facilitating global trade.”