Emirates SkyCargo and Korean Air Cargo, both well-established players in the industry, have signed an agreement to codeshare cargo capacity on two key routes from India – the capital Delhi and commercial hub Mumbai.
Experiencing a strong surge in demand from a buoyant Indian economy, Emirates SkyCargo now offers its customers additional 20 tonnes of capacity to Dubai on Korean Air Cargo’s Boeing 747-400F services – Fridays from Delhi and Wednesdays from Mumbai.
Peter Sedgley, Emirates’ Vice President Cargo Commercial Operations said: “This landmark agreement with Korean Air Cargo represents the critical commercial partnerships we forge to provide our customers with additional capacity and premium service on demand.
“Importantly, it also highlights customers’ preference for our services and the significance we attach to our operations in India. In the last financial year, India contributed more than seven per cent to Emirates SkyCargo’s overall revenue and had a growth rate of over 40 per cent.”
From Delhi, Emirates SkyCargo transports large shipments of garments, knitwear, hosiery, handicrafts and leather while from Mumbai it carries courier traffic, garments, perishables, pharmaceuticals, valuables and print publications to Dubai. From its hub the cargo division quickly and conveniently transports a majority of these shipments to the consumer markets of the Middle East, Europe and Africa on Emirates’ vast network, using a combination of belly-hold and dedicated freighter services.
Jinho Yun, General Manager at Korean Air Cargo said: “We are delighted to partner with Emirates SkyCargo on the critical Delhi and Mumbai sectors. It provides flexibility as well as better fleet and capacity utilization – a win-win situation for both parties.”
Emirates SkyCargo offers 43 non-stop weekly belly-hold services in the airline's fleet of Airbus A330-200 from Dubai to India: 19 to Mumbai; seven to Delhi; four to Chennai; eight to Hyderabad and five to Kochi. Additionally it serves three cities – Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai – weekly with a dedicated Boeing 747-200F offering 105 tonnes of payload capacity. The combination of freighter and belly-hold services provide customers a total of approximately 1000 tonnes of cargo capacity every week both to and from six Indian cities.
The cargo division has strengthened its road feeder services and bonded trucking on several routes in India, such as from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, as well as Coimbatore and Tirupur to Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Cochin in South India.
About Emirates SkyCargo
Emirates' 80-strong fleet, which includes 73 wide-bodied passenger jets and seven freighters (one Airbus A310, four 747-400Fs and two 747-200Fs) is one of the youngest in the skies. Emirates SkyCargo now serves 77 destinations in 54 countries in Europe, North America, Middle East, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and the Far East.
Emirates SkyCargo’s seven freighters serve busy trade routes – New York, Milan, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Istanbul, Mumbai, Chennai, Lahore, Dhaka, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore as well as cargo-only destinations such as Gothenburg, Amsterdam, Bangalore, and Taipei.
It moved 838,400 tonnes of freight in 2004-05 - an increase of 27 per cent over the previous year - while the division's revenue grew by 42 per cent to Dhs 3.4 billion (US $940 million), accounting for a record 21 per cent of the airline's operating revenue.
This year Emirates SkyCargo already has won a clutch of major cargo awards including: ‘Air Cargo Carrier of the Year’ from International Freighting Weekly, UK (2nd year running); ‘Best Air Cargo Carrier - Middle East’ from Cargo News Asia (3rd year running); and ‘Best Cargo Airline to the Middle East’ (17th year running), ‘Best Cargo Airline to the Indian subcontinent’ (8th year) and ‘Best Cargo Airline to the Far East’ (2nd year) from Air Cargo News.
