UAEReview Fourth B777F joins SkyCargo
Emirates SkyCargo received its fourth B777 freighter on 1 March. “We are taking delivery of another two towards the end of this year and one in March 2013,” says Hiran Perera, senior vice pres- ident cargo planning and freighters Emirates Airline. In a market that has “entirely
changed”, he considers that the 103-tonne payload B777F per- forms extremely well. “It’s less capacity to fill and more effective on trip cost, especially in a down market.” He went on: “We are still seeing signs of
uncertainty ... and all the big markets have been in decline. However, with the B777Fs I feel we are better positioned to cope.” Perera was keen to emphasise the charter capability of the Emirates SkyCargo fleet, when
DWC development offers space to expand
Sea-air cargo through Dubai is down to “a mere trickle at the moment, it’s fallen to about 15 percent of what it was at its peak … and we don’t see much change in the year ahead,” says Jean-Pierre de Pauw, divisional senior vice president at dnata, which handles all air freight in Dubai. “At the peak of our opera-
the capacity is available. “We are quite active in the charter market and deal with all the leading brokers,” he noted. “We have a dedicated charter desk and in the
future we believe we will have a flexible enough fleet to offer more charter availability.”
tions here at Dubai International airport we were handling 1,600 freighters a month, but that has slowed to about 700 a month, as busi- ness continues to remain depressed. “We are lucky to have invested in infrastruc-
International airport through lack of slots, so we are seeing a slow migration of freighters to DWC. “We had hoped that this
migration would have hap- pened faster, but the lack of growth over the past two years caused by the global economic situation has slowed that migration sub- stantially. “Over the next few years
de Pauw offers growth “in an unconstrained manner”
ture that allows us to be ready when growth does materialise,” de Pauw continued. “We are running at about 70 percent of cargo terminal capacity at the six facilities we have at Dubai International airport and one at the new Dubai World Central Al Maktoum International air- port (DWC). “Space for freighters is constricted at Dubai
that migration will happen and it will be driven purely by growth. We have a dream situ- ation waiting there with 60 freighter stands and a large
cargo facility where we can grow in an uncon- strained manner.” All the other airports in the region have
their capacity problems at the moment, but DWC has plenty of space” ready and available” for charter operators, de Pauw said. “We are also ready for the scheduled business,” he added, “but we need to wait for the economy to improve.”
Abu Dhabi air freight posts strong result for February
Cargo handled at Abu Dhabi International airport in Febru- ary soared by 13.2 percent compared to the same period last year, with the gateway pro- cessing 42,860 tonnes of air freight in the month. Operator Abu Dhabi Air-
ports Company (ADAC) said that aircraft movements also continued to grow steadily with a 3.8 percent increase seen in February, reaching 9,263 take- offs and landings during the month. ADAC remarked that the traffic growth was
due mainly to new destinations being added by Etihad Airways, including the introduction of its five times a week A330-300 service to the
Chinese commercial centre of Shanghai, and the arrival of new airlines including Safi Airways of Afghanistan, which now operates four week- ly A320 flights from Kabul.
BRIEFS • BRIEFS • BRIEFS • BRIEFS
OUSSAMA EL OMARI , CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone (RAK FTZ) – one of the fastest- growing free trade zones in the UAE – was a speaker at the Global Special Economic Zones summit on 19-21 March in Kuala Lumpur. He took part in a discussion looking at the importance of transport infrastructure and multimodal connec- tivity as a catalyst for the economic growth of Special Economic Zones.
HANI AL HAMLI, secretary general of the Dubai Economic Council, says the emirate is expected to achieve up to 5 percent GDP growth this year,
driven by the continuous growth in logistics and the other main industries such as trade, retail, transport and tourism. “This is an estimate,” Al Hamli told a conference in Abu Dhabi. “By the end of the year it could be better.”
THE FIRST AIRCRAFT to be painted in the new livery of UAE-based freighter operator Maximus Air was rolled out of the Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies paint shop earlier this month (March). The A300-600F immediately re- entered the fleet to head off on another mission for the all-cargo airline.
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26 March 2012
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