Emirates SkyCargo flies B777-300ERs to 7 African destinations

May 04, 2020: Starting May, Emirates SkyCargo will fly to seven destinations in Africa including Entebbe, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Eldoret, Cairo, Casablanca, and Khartoum using B777-300ER passenger aircraft. It has commenced dedicated cargo flights on a scheduled basis every week to 67 global destinations across six continents.

The other destinations include 11 in the Middle East, 22 in Asia, 6 in Australasia, 15 in Europe, and 6 cities in the Americas. 

Emirates SkyCargo moving perishables from Sri Lanka

Out of the 67 destinations, 58 are served by Emirates' B777-300ER passenger aircraft with a cargo capacity of around 40 tonnes, and 24 cities are served by the Emirates SkyCargo B777F aircraft with the ability to uplift 100 tonnes of cargo per flight.

On April 23, Emirates SkyCargo operated a Boeing 777-300ER from Mumbai loaded with just over 66 tonnes of cargo in the lower deck of the aircraft. The cargo carried was a mix of general cargo, perishables, and sanitisers. The cargo was loaded on 12 pallets and six containers.

Emirates SkyCargo has included Sao Paulo to its scheduled network

In April, Emirates SkyCargo has operated over 2,500 dedicated cargo flights (close to 85 flights a day). 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 1,650 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. 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. 

Since January 2020, the air cargo carrier has transported more than 375,000 tonnes of cargo on its flights.

"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," said Nabil Sultan, Emirates divisional senior vice president, cargo.

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 addition to medical supplies, 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, continuing to support local agriculture and produce exports while ensuring that consumers can still access fruits, vegetables and other fresh produce in local stores.

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.