Emirates SkyCargo will add London Stansted and Edinburgh as the seventh and eighth destinations in its UK network with the launch of non-stop passenger flights on June 8, 2018 and October 1, 2018 respectively.

According to Emirates, both flights will be operated daily with a Boeing 777-300ER, offering a cargo capacity of up to 20 tonnes per flight. This will result in an additional capacity of over 500 tonnes per week for exports and imports for the UK market.

SkyCargo currently serves the UK with a weekly capacity of more than 2,000 tonnes on over 120 passenger flights and two freighter flights. Since 2014, the carrier has transported close to 600,000 tonnes of cargo through its six gateways at Birmingham, Glasgow, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Manchester and Newcastle.

London has accounted for slightly over 60% of Emirates’ total UK cargo volume in the last four years, with a combined 63 flights to Gatwick and Heathrow per week. The new daily service to Stansted will provide additional choice and capacity for customers in the London region.

In the last four years, SkyCargo has facilitated over 45,000 tonnes of exports and imports to and from Glasgow. The new service to Edinburgh will stimulate further opportunities for global trade from Scotland, including exports of Scottish Whisky and salmon.

In 2017, Emirates carried over 66,000 tonnes of exports from the UK to various destinations across the Middle East, East and Southeast Asia and Australasia.

Pharmaceutical cargo is one of the UK’s major exports. SkyCargo saw robust growth in pharma out of the UK following the launch of Emirates Pharma, particularly from London, Manchester and Newcastle. In 2017, the carrier transported over 2,800 tonnes of pharma cargo, including vaccines, anaesthetics, cancer drugs and diabetes medication, from the UK to various destinations in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, East and Southeast Asia and Australasia.

Emirates has also brought more than 150,000 tonnes of imports into the UK, including mangoes from South Asia, green beans from Kenya, machinery, raw materials for engineering, as well as  clothing and garments.

Emirates SkyCargo operates a freighter fleet of one Boeing 747F and 13 777Fs, and offers belly space on an all-widebody fleet of over 100 Airbus A380s and over 150 777s.

The schedule for the new flights is as follows.