Soon, you can send friends, family packages with Emirates Courier Express

Dubai: Emirates Courier Express, the new package delivery service from Dubai's flagship airline, Emirates, is set to expand its offerings to include shipping between individuals by 2026. The service launched on April 2nd currently handles business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) deliveries.

Dennis Lister, Senior Vice President of Product and Innovation at Emirates, said in an interview with Gulf News on Tuesday at the International Air Transport Agency’s (IATA’s) World Cargo Symposium that the "consumer-to-consumer," or C2C, service is a bit more complex due to regulations surrounding personal deliveries.

"We are not doing that just yet, but it will come next year," he said, urging readers to "Watch this space."

Person-to-person shipping allows individuals to send packages directly to other individuals. This differs from standard business shipping and typically involves personal items, gifts, or goods exchanged between private individuals rather than companies.

Emirates Courier Express aims to provide a convenient door-to-door delivery service, utilizing Emirates’ extensive network of over 250 aircraft and its partner network.

The service launched in 7 key markets earlier this month, including the UK, the Middle East, all GCC countries, and South Africa. “Looking forward, we're onboarding Australia. India is the next big market. We're also looking at China as a massive market, and eventually the US,” said Lister. According to Lister, this phased approach is necessary because developing and implementing these services takes time, resources, and personnel.

He said that Emirates Courier Express initially focuses on its most important and frequently used routes. They didn't launch globally immediately because setting up operations worldwide is complex and requires building partnerships in each location. Their strategy involves an "asset-light" approach, meaning they rely on local partners in each market for package pickup and final delivery.

“The operating model we've created is on a partner-based model, what we call "asset-light," even though we're an asset-heavy company. But we're in the market, we're using the local final mile and first-mile delivery capability of the partner in that market,” he explained.

For example, they'd team up with a local company for these services in the UK. Emirates Courier Express manages the entire process from the initial collection to the final delivery.

Providing a timeline for near-term expansion, Lister revealed that Australia is a priority market and is set to launch "in the next month." India will follow soon, with the US and China likely next in line, though he cautioned that this order could change. "Priority for us is going to be Australia... India will follow soon, and then we will start working on the US and then China in that sort of order, which may change. So, don't hold me to it," he said.

While EKSC currently operates in around 10 destinations, Lister clarified that the focus is on reaching airport destinations rather than just countries. He explained that launching services in a single country can immediately add multiple destinations, citing South Africa and Australia as examples.

Lister also said the company aims to reach all 148 destinations served by its parent airline, Emirates. “I think our goal is going to be to try and hit 148 destinations we fly to,” Lister stated, emphasizing the long-term ambition.

In the near term, the focus for the next one to two years will be on "stabilizing" current operations, improving efficiency, accelerating growth, and expanding into more markets. Lister also highlighted the intention to broaden the range of services offered by EKSC, including the delivery of specialized items such as "medical samples or vaccines, etc., or specific oncology drugs to certain patients."

The UAE and the wider GCC region are witnessing a significant and sustained boom in e-commerce, driven by high internet and smartphone penetration rates, a young and tech-savvy population, and increasing consumer comfort with online shopping.

Commenting on whether Emirates Courier Express has been launched to capitalize on the region’s e-commerce boom, Lister said, “What you're seeing in today's world is more and more people are buying stuff online. I don't think we can catch the entire e-commerce market, and that's not the goal. This (EK Courier Express) is a premium product that will focus on customers who want things delivered quickly. Because if you look at the trends today, people want stuff delivered quickly.”

Lister said Emirates plans to offer door-to-door solutions to retailers. “The delivery time can be cut short by providing it on our passenger fleet, because we have so many flights operating from the key markets,” he explained.

Emirates, for example, operates more than 138 flights a week from the UK. “This will enable us to connect quickly on any of those flights into the Middle East or beyond.”

According to Lister, the Emirates Courier Express service was designed to be multifaceted. “I would not want to pigeonhole it to one industry. It's—it's vertical, it's multi-vertical. So, in other words, it can be anything from technology, pharmaceuticals. It could mean one day we're delivering blood, we could be delivering samples of vaccines, etc.” he added.

The service delivers technology, pharmaceuticals, food or fresh products, and cold chain. “A range of different products we can deliver in a range of different verticals we're going to approach. It's not one industry-specific. Multi-industry is the goal,” he added.