• Expands scheduled cargo destination network to 67 cities
  • More than 2,500 cargo flights in April to 80+ global destinations
  • Supports repatriation on cargo missions with passenger aircraft

Emirates SkyCargo has this week started scheduled weekly dedicated cargo flights to 67 destinations worldwide, part of its global “cargo conveyor belt”.

This includes 11 destinations in the Middle East, seven in Africa, 22 in Asia, six in Australasia, 15 in Europe and six cities in the Americas.

Out of the 67 destinations, 58 are served by Emirates’ B777-300ER passenger aircraft with a cargo capacity of around 40 tonnes, while 24 cities are served by B777 freighters with up to 100 tonnes of cargo per flight.

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Emirates SkyCargo operated over 2,500 dedicated cargo flights in April. Since January 2020, the air cargo carrier has transported more than 375,000 tonnes of cargo.

Said a spokesperson for the Middle East combination carrier: “Acting as a global conveyor belt for the transport of essential supplies including protective equipment, medical devices, pharmaceuticals and food, the air cargo carrier flew more than 1650 flights on its B777-300ER passenger freighters and over 850 flights on its B777 freighters to over 80 destinations on scheduled and special charter services.”

Nabil Sultan, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice President, Cargo, said: “Over the last six to eight weeks, we have had to work innovatively and around the clock to move essential cargo to destinations where they were most needed.

“We started with just about a dozen cities served by our Boeing 777-300ER passenger freighters at the end of March but within the space of a month we have scaled our operations to a point where we now have more than 65 destinations as part of our network and about 85 daily cargo flights.:

Sultan continued: “Our cargo operations continue to grow, as we see strong demand and every day we work to connect more points with our flights. Our operations support not just the immediate relief efforts, but in a distributed global economy, they also help keep businesses and trade running.

“And as Emirates, we would also be happy to support any immediate repatriation efforts and transport passengers on our cargo flights if we receive approvals from national authorities.”

Emirates SkyCargo witnessed an increasing demand for operating charter flights during the month of April. The carrier operated more than 170 charter flights over the space of just four weeks. A majority of charter flights were operated to transport relief materials.

In total, the carrier transported an estimated 10,000 tonnes of personal protective equipment, medical equipment, devices and pharmaceuticals in the month of April on its scheduled and charter flights.

Emirates SkyCargo is also facilitating the transport of other items including perishables and fresh produce. Between January and April 2020, Emirates SkyCargo flew more than 85,000 tonnes of food around the world.

Emirates SkyCargo is working closely with national governments to help boost local economies by providing businesses with export capacity on its flights.

The carrier has recently announced that it is working with both the Australian and New Zealand governments to help transport fresh produce and other key exports to global consumer markets while at the same time ensuring that key supplies including equipment and medicine could continue to flow to Australia and New Zealand.