Emirates SkyCargo, the freight division of Emirates, is gearing up to facilitate more trade between the UK and the rest of the world by adding London Stansted and Edinburgh to its global network of over 155 destinations. London Stansted and Edinburgh will be Emirates SkyCargo’s seventh and eighth destinations in the UK.
Emirates SkyCargo will be operating a daily service to both destinations on its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and will be offering a cargo capacity of up to 20 tonnes per flight. This will translate into an additional cargo capacity of over 500 tonnes per week for exports and imports for the UK market.
The air cargo carrier currently offers the UK a weekly cargo capacity of over 2000 tonnes on over 120 passenger flights and two freighter flights. Since 2014, Emirates SkyCargo has transported close to a record 600,000 tonnes of cargo including both exports and imports through its six existing gateways in the UK. Emirates SkyCargo is one of the three leading international air cargo carriers for the UK market.
With a combined 63 flights a week from London Heathrow and London Gatwick, these London gateways account for biggest portion of the air cargo carrier’s total UK cargo volumes. Cargo uplifted to and from London in the last four years have accounted for slightly over 60% of the total cargo uplifted to and from the UK. The daily service to London Stansted will provide additional choice and capacity for customers in the London region to airfreight their cargo to global destinations.
Starting 8 June, flight EK33 will depart Dubai at 09:30hrs, and will arrive in London Stansted at 14:10hrs. The return flight, EK34 will depart London Stansted at 21:10hrs and arrive in Dubai at 07:05 the following day.
Emirates SkyCargo has facilitated exports and imports of over 45,000 tonnes of cargo from Glasgow in the last four years. The air cargo carrier’s new service to Edinburgh will stimulate further opportunities for global trade from Scotland. The daily flight to Edinburgh will allow businesses, including exporters of Scottish Whisky and salmon, more direct and rapid air transport connections to global destinations avoiding the need to truck their products to destinations elsewhere in the UK.
Flight EK023 to Edinburgh will depart Dubai daily at 0955hrs and arrive at 1450hrs. The return flight EK024 will depart Edinburgh at 2015hrs and arrive in Dubai at 0640hrs the following day.
In the calendar year 2017, Emirates SkyCargo carried over 66,000 tonnes of exports from the UK to various destinations across the Middle East, East and South East Asia and Australasia.
Pharmaceutical cargo is one of the major commodities that is exported out of UK and in particular out of London. Emirates SkyCargo has seen a robust growth in the transport of pharma out of the UK- in particular from London, Manchester and Newcastle- following the launch of Emirates Pharma, its specialised transportation solution for temperature sensitive pharma cargo. Emirates SkyCargo works with leading pharma manufacturers based in the UK to transport a wide variety of pharmaceuticals ranging from vaccines to anaesthetics, from cancer drugs to medication for diabetes. In 2017, the air cargo carrier transported over 2.8 million kilos of pharma cargo out of the UK to various destinations in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, East and South East Asia and Australasia. Emirates SkyCargo has also been working with companies involved in new drug development and has built customised offerings for rapid transport of samples for clinical trials.
From mangoes originating in South Asia to green beans grown in Kenya, from machinery and raw materials for engineering to clothing and garments, Emirates SkyCargo also brings in a wide range of imports into the UK from different parts of the world. In the last two years the air cargo carrier has brought in over 150,000 tonnes of imports into the UK.
Emirates SkyCargo is the world’s largest international cargo airline and operates a modern, all widebody fleet of over 265 aircraft including 14 freighters- 13 Boeing 777-Fs and one B747F.