Norwegian airport operator Avinor and Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) have terminated a letter of intent signed in August for construction and operation of a new seaood centre at Oslo Airport.
In details revealed at the announcment, the centre was set to span 16,000 square metres and handle up to 250,000 tonnes of seafood annually, in a facility designed to meet industry requirements for cool chain logistics and innovation.
Construction of the terminal was expected to commence last month, with the opening of the terminal expected sometime in 2021.
Avinor said in a statement: “Avinor AS and Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) signed a letter of intent in the autumn of 2018 on the construction and operation of a new seafood center for air cargo at Oslo Airport.
“WFS and Avinor now agree to terminate this letter of intent. WFS initiated changes that could not be implemented under the Avinor procurement regulations. We will now consider whether or how to arrange for seafood exports over Oslo airport.”
The centre was being built to meet rising demand for Norwegian seafood. Air cargo tonnage of fresh fish reached 230,000 tonnes last year.
Oslo Airport is the largest freighter airport in Northern Europe and among the freighter airlines flying from the airport are Turkish Cargo, Saudia Cargo, Ethiopian Cargo, Emirates SkyCargo, AirBridgeCargo, and Cargolux.
Further seafood capacity has been added this year. On 1 March, CAL Cargo Airlines added second weekly rotation from Oslo to Tel Aviv while in January Slovakian carrier Air Cargo Global started a new Boeing 747-440F route between Oslo and Tianjin in China.
