Emirates SkyCargo Signs Deals for Airbus freighters
Dubai: Emirates SkyCargo has signed agreements with Airbus and EADS EFW for the purchase of three Airbus A310-300s and their conversion to freighters.
The A310-300Fs are expected to enter the Emirates fleet from the middle of next year, one in July and the other two in January 2006. The wide-bodied freighters will carry a payload of 39 tonnes, offering excellent performance capabilities and fuel efficiency.
These will be the first Airbus freighters in the Emirates fleet, and also the first owned by the airline. With this order, Emirates will be the launch customer for Airbus freighters with a side-by-side loading capability of 96-inch by 125-inch pallets.
"This is a landmark order for Emirates SkyCargo. We intend to use the aircraft on key regional routes and high-density cargo markets in the Middle East and Africa, the Indian subcontinent and the Mediterranean," said Ram Menen, Emirates senior vice-president for cargo.
Flexibility
"The new aircraft will provide flexibility and more capacity to our customers; help us rationalise payloads and service key markets better with quicker turnarounds and enhance Dubai's role as a regional cargo hub."
The aircraft will be equipped with auxiliary centre tanks to increase their range, enabling one-stop operations from Dubai to the United States and countries in the South Pacific.
"We are very pleased to welcome Emirates SkyCargo as our 20th customer for the increasingly popular A310-300 wide-body freighter family. It's a source of great pride to know that converted Airbus aircraft will be playing a crucial part in the growing international freight route structure of a tremendously successful carrier that is Emirates. I know that Emirates SkyCargo will take full advantage of the A310-300 freighter's great potential," said Horst Emker, president and CEO of EADS EFW.
The A310F's capability to use standard cargo containers represents maximum interlining potential with Emirates' two gigantic A380Fs, expected to enter the fleet in 2008. This will reduce the need to repackage shipments, facilitating rapid transfers, providing quicker service and avoiding damage.
The current six wet-leased Boeing 747s and orders for five Airbus freighters, three A310Fs and two A380Fs, will expand Emirates SkyCargo's total freighter fleet to 11 aircraft.
Emirates has added to its impressive haul of international honours by being chosen for the Best Business Class to the Middle East award by the American edition of Business Traveler magazine.
The award, voted on by the readers of Business Traveler, was presented to Nigel Page, Emirates senior vice president for commercial operations, the Americas, by the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, at a luncheon attended by several hundred business leaders in New York. Emirates, which inaugurated non-stop service to and from New York in June, is one of the world's fastest growing airlines, flying to 77 cities in 54 countries on five continents.
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