Dubai: Emirates SkyCargo carried 2.1 million tonnes of cargo across its network in 2013 bringing Dh10.3 billion in revenue, an eight per cent year-on-year increase, the cargo unit of Emirates Airline, said in a statement on Sunday.
For the first time revenue exceeded Dh10 billion as cargo tonnage increased 16 per cent year-on-year despite a stagnant airfreight market, the company said.
Traditionally, the air cargo business has grown by five to six per cent annually, according to a speech by Tony Tyler, Chief Executive Officer and Director General of International Air Transport Association (IATA) as published on the CAPA–Centre for Aviation website.
However, since 2010 it has only grown by two per cent despite world trade increasing by 12 per cent over the same period.
Emirates SkyCargo was ranked number one amongst the top airlines for scheduled Freight Tonne Kilometres flown internationally according to the latest World Airline Transport Statistics published by IATA.
Its network expanded with new cargo destinations to Hanoi in Vietnam, Chicago in the United States, Kano in Nigeria and Quito in Ecuador. Through the Emirates Airline passenger network it started services to Warsaw in Poland, Algiers in Algeria, Haneda in Japan, Stockholm in Sweden, Clark Airport in the Philippines, Conakry in Guinea, Sialkot in Pakistan and Kabul in Afghanistan. SkyCargo makes use of the belly-hold capacity in these passenger services.
Health care products
The company also expanded its fleet in 2013 by adding three Boeing 777 Freighters, now operating 12 freighters including 10 B777 Freighters and two B747-400ERFs, serving 43 destinations.
In March, the airline added CSafe as an additional cool chain solutions provider contributing to more than 4,000 tones of temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical and health care products being carried across the cargo division.
The launch of the Qantas-Emirates tie-up came as a boost for SkyCargo, which cooperates on cargo capacity with Qantas Freight on each others passenger services.
Together the two airlines are able to reach more than 200 ports across six continents.
In April, Emirates SkyCargo became the first carrier to implement Electronic-Air Waybill (e-AWB) shipments. Since then SkyCargo has entered into more than 190 global and local bilateral and multi-lateral e-AWB agreements with its customers to support the transition to electronic Air waybills. This year, SkyCargo is set to switch operations from Dubai International to Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central, the city’s newest airport. The shift will begin in April and by mid-September the new cargo terminal will be able to handle 700,000 tonnes of cargo, which can be increased by 300,000 in the second phase.
