A inside view of a Emirates Skycargo plane. File

Gulf Today, Business Bureau

With close to 100 daily cargo flights operated to a destination network spanning more than 65 cities across six continents, Emirates SkyCargo is leading the global cargo industry during these critical times in delivering essential supplies and commodities to people around the world. The air cargo carrier is currently operating 11 Boeing 777 freighter aircraft, each with a capacity to transport about 100 tonnes of cargo per flight and around 60 of its Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircraft as dedicated cargo aircraft, with a 40-50 tonne belly hold cargo capacity per flight.

In a bid to further optimise cargo operations and capacity, Emirates SkyCargo has also started loading cargo in the overhead bins and seats of its Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircraft. This move has been made in response to growing customer demand out of key markets.

Nabil Sultan, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice President, Cargo said: “We took a measured approach to the loading of cargo inside the cabins of our Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircraft. Safety of our people and operations is the first priority for us and we had to therefore evaluate the demand from the market against potential risks to our operations. We have now, after a complete evaluation, rolled out a detailed set of guidelines and procedures including strict rules on the kind of cargo that can be loaded inside the cabin.

“We have operated flights from stations such as Tokyo and New Delhi with cargo in the overhead bins and seats and are now in a position to be able to safely and optimally respond to customer demands for additional cargo capacity from main global production markets. We will be operating more flights over the coming weeks with cargo in both the belly as well as inside the main cabin. In addition, we are also looking at other measures including the removal of seats from select aircraft to deploy on high demand trade lanes,” commented Sultan.

For the loading of cargo in the seats and overhead bins inside passenger cabin of the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, the air cargo carrier has developed a robust set of guidelines for its global teams on handling procedures and has also introduced a smart calculator application to help its employees around the world to calculate optimal loading capacity inside the passenger cabin. Emirates SkyCargo would be able to provide up to 24 tonnes of additional cargo capacity with complete loading of overhead bins and seats in its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

Earlier, the Emirates SkyCargo announced that from the first week of May 2020, it has commenced dedicated cargo flights to 67 global destinations across six continents. 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’ Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircraft with a cargo capacity of around 40 tonnes and 24 cities are served by the Emirates SkyCargo Boeing 777-F aircraft with the ability to uplift 100 tonnes of cargo per flight.

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.