Emirates SkyCargo is reinforcing its commitment to facilitate global movement of goods with ‘cargo-only’ flights on passenger aircraft offering up to 40 tonnes cargo capacity offered per flight. 

In a statement, the cargo arm of Dubai-based Emirates, said the service will fly to more than 20 destinations across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe initially.

"Working in a scenario where global air cargo capacity has been severely constrained due to restrictions on passenger flights, the air cargo carrier has unveiled a new schedule of 'cargo-only' flights on Emirates' Boeing 777 fleet of passenger aircraft, offering up to 40 tonnes of lower deck cargo capacity per flight," Emirates said in a statement.

The additional service is expected to supplement cargo capacity already being offered on Emirates' scheduled freighter services that service more than 40 destinations globally every week.

"... by introducing the new cargo-only flights on our wide-body Boeing 777 passenger aircraft, we can ensure that we can maintain the flow of goods such as medical and pharmaceutical supplies, equipment and food items to destinations where they are most needed," said Nabil Sultan, divisional senior vice president, Emirates SkyCargo.

He noted that Emirates' freighter team is working hard to ensure that its fleet of 11 Boeing 777 freighters are operating at full capacity moving essential supplies across six continents.

In addition to the cargo flights on passenger aircraft, Emirates SkyCargo has deployed a number of measures, including additional freighter flights and transporting cargo on road feeder services from other freighter destinations to help transport essential cargo such as pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, perishables, other equipment and raw materials to impacted global destinations.

Between mid-January and mid-March 2020, Emirates SkyCargo said it transported more than 225,000 tonnes of cargo in total out of which 55,000 tonnes were food items including fruits, vegetables, meat and seafood, and more than 13,000 tonnes were pharmaceutical cargo.

Freighter Operations

Emirates' fleet of 11 freighter aircraft flew a number of ad hoc and charter flights in addition to scheduled operations to match the increased demand for air transportation of cargo.

During the eight week period between mid-January and mid-March, Emirates' freighter aircraft transported more than 50,000 tonnes of cargo including medical and food supplies. During one charter operation, Emirates SkyCargo transported close to half a million units of hand sanitisers in a single Boeing 777 freighter aircraft.

During the last two weeks, the air cargo carrier has operated more than 30 weekly freighter flights from Hong Kong, with the station sometimes handling between six to eight freighters in a single day. In addition, Emirates SkyCargo also operated 12 freighters from Shanghai, five freighters from Guangzhou and one freighter from Beijing during the same week.

In addition to scheduled freighter services to over 40 global destinations, ad-hoc freighter services were also operated to other destinations including Seoul, Taipei, Frankfurt, Milan and Casablanca in the month of March.

Emirates SkyCargo is also offering customers the choice of having their cargo transported by road feeder services to and from other freighter destinations to continue providing much needed connectivity for cargo.