Emirates SkyCargo is raising Dubai’s reputation as one of the top international trading hubs with new links it has opened in recent weeks.
The cargo division of Emirates Airline has coammenced services to Istanbul and Frankfurt, while also adding one more weekly flight to make it three to Shanghai. Upcoming is SkyCargo’s cross-Atlantic operations to New York via Gothenburg (Sweden).
The Wednesday service to Istanbul will supplement the belly-hold capacity in Emirates’ regular five days a week services to the Turkish city. Also on Wednesdays, a Boeing 747-400 Freighter will fly to Frankfurt offering cargo capacity over and above the belly capacity in the airline’s double dailies to the city.
Commenting on the new services to Istanbul, Pradeep Kumar, Emirates’ vice president for cargo revenue optimisation, said: “Istanbul is ideally located at the confluence of two continents and is the commercial capital of Turkey. Turkish traders are demanding extra freight capacity as the country has one of the largest domestic markets in the Middle East and Western Europe and its economy is growing at a phenomenal rate. Our new services make perfect economic sense and will foster better international trade ties for Turkey as a whole.”
Kumar said the new services were carefully woven into the company’s strategic and operational plans. SkyCargo’s expansion plans were ultimately designed to cater to local, regional and international customers.
Turkey is home to more than 4,000 foreign firms and is the fourth largest exporter of garments. It has been declared as one of the “10 big emerging markets” and one of the “20 most dynamic countries in the World Trade Organisation.”
The proposed cargo route to New York will be served with a Boeing 747-200 feighter with direct main-deck capability enabling transportation of outsize shipments. The aircraft has the capacity to carry more than 100 tonnes of cargo in each direction.
SkyCargo already has a substantial customer base in the US, currently served through a General Sales Agent and interline partnerships with major airlines and freighter services in the country.
“We are already looking at a flurry of demand for our new services to the US particularly from the Indian Subcontinent and Africa,” said senior vice president for cargo Ram Menen. “Gothenburg is a major cargo hub in Europe and our customers, particularly in the Far East, can now use the added capacity and flexibility offered by our freighters to their advantage,” said Menen.
Emirates’ cargo-only destinations include Bangalore, Amsterdam, Liege, Shanghai and Taipei. Other busy trade routes served by its freighters are Amman, Chennai, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dusseldorf and Dhaka, all of which are also Emirates’ passenger destinations.
Complementing its air network is an extensive system of scheduled truck links to regional off-line points, providing customers with the speed of air transport and convenience of local collection and delivery. SkyCargo’s ambitious expansion plan aims to facilitate total logistics solutions, together with efficient supply-chain management and customer service.
Emirates Airline’s 53-strong fleet includes 50 wide-bodied passenger jets and three freighters - two 747-400Fs and one 747-200F.
SkyCargo returned remarkable financial figures for 2002-2003, carrying 525,188 tonnes of cargo, an increase of 31.1 per cent over the previous year, and earned Dh1.70 billion ($463 million) in revenues, representing 19.6 per cent of the airline’s revenues.
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