Tough market conditions were chance for Emirates SkyCargo to review offerings: Nabil Sultan

January 13, 2020: Nabil Sultan, divisional senior vice president, Cargo, Emirates noted that the tough market condition in 2019 was an opportunity for Emirates SkyCargo, the freight division of Emirates, to review its product offering to customers.

Highlights of 2019

1. More than 400,000 tonnes of perishables were flown on Emirates’ flights under Emirates Fresh, Emirates SkyCargo’s specialised product for perishables.
   2. In November and December of 2019, the carrier operated nine charter flights from Santiago, Chile uniquely for carrying cherries.
   3. Close to 11,000 high-priority shipments were moved across six continents under the Emirates AOG product.
   4. Year-on-year increase of 6% in the volume of high-value goods that were flown under Emirates Safe VAL, Emirates SkyCargo’s product for transportation of precious goods.
   
   5. 12% increase in demand for Emirates Pets, Emirates SkyCargo’s product for transportation of domestic cats and dogs.
   6. The carrier has been able to operate close to 370 charters and helped to transport cargo from relief materials for natural disasters and equipment for music concerts.
   7. Emirates SkyCargo unveiled a new handling facility dedicated for pharmaceutical cargo at Chicago airport. Since the launch of the new facility, Chicago has seen double-digit growth in the volume of pharma cargo transported.

"The global air cargo industry witnessed what was a very challenging year in 2019. Economic uncertainty, tensions in global trade and unrest in key markets negatively impacted cargo volumes. However, the tough market conditions were an opportunity for us to review our core offering to our customers and ensure that we remained market leaders with our specialised product offering, superior capabilities and infrastructure as well as our agility in responding to customer demand," he said.

"The outlook for 2020 is more positive with the air cargo industry set to post a modest recovery thanks to improved economic activity and trade growth. With our commitment to ‘deliver as promised’ backed by a global network covering over 155 destinations centred in Dubai, our modern fleet of all wide-body aircraft and our state of the art Emirates SkyCentral terminals, Emirates SkyCargo is well-positioned to support trade and economic growth in line with the Dubai Silk Road Project. With Expo 2020 Dubai also set to kick off in October 2020, we will see a surge in movement of goods to and from Dubai and we are working with our partners to provide specialised air freight services for this once in a lifetime event," he added.

Emirates Delivers

Emirates Delivers is a new e-commerce platform that enables both individuals and small businesses, to purchase products from any US-based online retail store and have it delivered in the UAE. Emirates Delivers is part of Emirates SkyCargo’s broader strategy to promote Dubai as an e-commerce fulfilment hub for customers based in the Middle East, Asia and Europe

Operations

1. In 2019, Emirates SkyCargo’s SkyCentral terminals in Dubai handled an average of four pieces of cargo every second of every hour on a 24*7 basis.

2. Over 700 staff on duty at any time of the day helped process around 360,000 individual packages daily through these terminals enabling

3. Emirates’ fleet of over 270 aircraft move approximately 7,000 tonnes of cargo every day, the equivalent of more than 60 full Boeing 777 freighters, between Dubai and the rest of the world.

4. A fleet of 49 trucks, including 12 refrigerated trucks, made an average 175 trips daily in 2019 to connect the two cargo terminals.

“Delivering as Promised”

Emirates SkyCargo’s "Delivery as Promised" has since 2018, been reinforced by applying the Cargo iQ framework. In 2019, the carrier monitored over 1.5 million shipments using Cargo iQ guidelines ensuring that cargo having a direct impact on the lives of people around the world, was transported and delivered on time.