GENEVA, July 8 (Reuters) - A new regular air cargo route linking Geneva's Cointrin international airport and China's fast-growing east coast industrial centre of Shenzhen goes into service on Thursday, officials said on Wednesday.
An announcement from Cointrin said the twice-monthly service will be operated by Lufthansa Cargo and the Shenzhen-based Jade Cargo, which is partly owned by the German company and already serves several countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Flying the route will be a Boeing B747-400 with a load capacity of 102 tonnes, the announcement said.
Cointrin officials said the service, which will make Geneva the seventh European city from which Lufthansa Cargo operates a direct route to China, has been opened in response to demand from exporters in western Switzerland and eastern France.
The first cargo to be carried on Thursday's flight will be machines made by a Swiss company based near Geneva for cutting silicon used in the manufacture of solar panel cells, according to the announcement. (Editing by Charles Dick)
(Reporting by Robert Evans; e-mail: robert.j.evans@ thomsonreuters.com; tel.: +41 79 446 05 72))