Emirates won the "Best Business Class to the Middle East" award from the American version of Business Traveler Magazine. The award, voted for by the readers of Business Traveler, was presented to Nigel Page, Emirates Senior Vice President Commercial Operations, the Americas, by the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, at a luncheon attended by several hundred business leaders at The Plaza Hotel in New York.
Emirates, which inaugurated non-stop service to and from New York in June, is one of the world’s fastest growing airlines flying to 77 cities in 54 countries on five continents.
It should be mentioned that Emirates SkyCargo announced recently it has signed agreements with Airbus and EADS EFW for the purchase of three Airbus A310-300s and their conversion to freighters, respectively.
The converted aircraft are cause for triple celebrations. These will be the first Airbus freighters in Emirates’ fleet, and also the first ones owned by the airline. With this order, Emirates will be the launch customer for Airbus freighters with side-by-side loading capability of 96”x125” pallets.
The A310-300Fs are expected to enter Emirates’ fleet from the middle of next year – one in July 2005 and the other two in January 2006. The wide-bodied freighters will have a payload capacity of 39 tonnes of cargo, offering excellent performance capabilities and fuel efficiency.
Ram Menen, Emirates’ Senior Vice President Cargo said: “This is a landmark order for Emirates SkyCargo. We intend to use the aircraft on key regional routes and high-density cargo markets in the Middle East and African region, the Indian subcontinent, and the Mediterranean region.
“The new aircraft will provide flexibility and more capacity to our customers; help us rationalize payloads and service key markets better with quicker turnarounds; and enhance Dubai’s role as a regional cargo hub.”
The aircraft will be equipped with Auxiliary Centre Tanks to increase their range, enabling one-stop operations from Dubai to the U.S. and countries in the South Pacific.
Horst Emker, President and CEO of EADS EFW said: “We are very pleased to welcome Emirates SkyCargo as our 20th customer for the increasingly popular A300/A310 wide-body freighter family. It’s a source of great pride to know that converted Airbus aircraft will be playing a crucial part in the growing international freight route structure of a tremendously successful carrier that is Emirates. I know that Emirates SkyCargo will take full advantage of the A310-300 freighter’s great potential.”
