New Telegraph

Emirates SkyCargo operates 28,000 ‘preighter flights’ in one year

Emirates SkyCargo has said it operated over 27,800 cargo-only flights on passenger aircraft during the last year.

 

These flights have helped transport more than 100,000 tonnes of essential supplies, including PPE, COVID-19 testing kits, ventilators, pharmaceuticals, vaccines and food.

 

This is the equivalent of cargo carried over 1,000 full flights on the Boeing 777 freighter aircraft. Nabil Sultan, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice President, Cargo, said: “It has been exactly one year since what was considered impossible in the air cargo industry became not just a reality, but a strong operational pillar for Emirates SkyCargo.

 

“Prior to the pandemic, nearly two thirds of our total cargo was transported in the belly-hold of our passenger flights.

 

“With increasing flight suspensions and restrictions on passenger travel imposed due to COVID-19 in early March 2020, we could foresee a situation where there would no longer be adequate cargo capacity available in the market to transport essential supplies.

 

“In order to bolster the cargo capacity offered by our 11 Boeing 777 freighters and make sure that we could meet the urgent demand for goods such as PPE, ventilators and other pharmaceutical goods and food supplies from across the world, we proactively made a radical and innovative plan to utilise our wide-body passenger aircraft to operate cargo only flights.

 

“We trialed this passenger freighter concept with a flight to Kuwait on March 16, last year. Over the next few weeks, as regular passenger operations were completely suspended, we started increasing our passenger freighter flights to a point where we had close to 90 passenger aircraft being used for cargo operations.

 

“Our team worked tirelessly to flesh out a new business model from the ground up- seeking approvals from authorities, drawing up a new route network, drafting new operational and safety guidelines and speaking to our customers around the world – to make sure that as a socially responsible carrier, we were able to maintain essential supplies of cargo into markets and at the same time sustain exports around the world in challenging economic conditions.

 

“Our passenger freighter strategy has been the backbone of our operations during the pandemic transporting cargo to more than 125 destinations across six continents.

 

It has showcased our resilience as a global facilitator of trade and supply chains. With resumption and growth in passenger operations, we have started gradually moving towards our traditional model but our passenger freighters continue to remain a strong component of the COVID-19 pandemic response.”

Read Previous

Furore over Port Harcourt Refinery’s $1.5bn repair

Read Next

DaddyRich Iyasere braces up for quality music

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *