Dnata Cargo ships big to Congo

Dubai: Dnata Cargo, the airfreight company under Emirates Group, is witnessing increased traffic to the African markets.

The company saw one of its largest shipments last month, when it transported 51 saloon cars to Kinshasa, the capital of Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Transported within 48 hours, the deadline specified by an agent, the shipment included 16 Infinity G35 models and 35 Nissan Altima cars, weighing a total of 77 tonnes.

Each shipment had to be carefully loaded onto separate pallets, secured with special restraining belts. The cars were transported using a Boeing 747-200F, departing from Dnata's purpose-built Freight Gate 3.

With only one freighter available at the time, the shipment was completed in two trips with a turnaround time of three hours in between landing and re-take off.

Vice-president of Dnata Cargo operations, Stuart Hayman said, "Time is always a critical element. Deadlines are imminent for charter because it is charged by the hour.

He said that the importance of the African market is growing. It gets 30 to 40 per cent of total goods that transit through Dubai. "This shows in the number of direct flights to Africa. Because it is a rapidly developing market, it is very time sensitive," said Hayman.

The cargo is shipped through Emirates Airline's network that currently serves 16 passenger and cargo destinations in Africa. These include Abidjan, Accra, Addis Ababa, Cairo, Cape Town, Casablanca, Dar es Salaam, Eldoret, Entebbe, Johannesburg, Khartoum, Lagos, Lilongwe, Nairobi, Tripoli and Tunis.

Last week, the airline announced a new flight route to Durban, South Africa and Luanda, Angola.

Additionally, Hayman said that the company has a lot of shipments going to Iraq and Afghanistan with consumer products.