Emirates activates passenger fleet to haul vital cargo

Emirates has activated its passenger fleet to haul vital cargo for Emirates SkyCargo operating close to 100 daily cargo flights to a network spanning more than 65 cities across six continents. Emirates SkyCargo says it's leading the global cargo industry during these critical times in delivering essential supplies and commodities to people around the world. Forty per cent of cargo, by value, goes by air and 90 per cent of that travels typically in the belly of passenger aircraft but with over two-thirds of the world fleet grounded air cargo is in crisis. The air cargo carrier is operating its own 11 Boeing 777 freighter aircraft, each with a capacity to transport about 100 tonnes of cargo per flight and around 60 of the airline's Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircraft as dedicated cargo aircraft, with a 40-50 tonne belly-hold cargo capacity per flight. And in a bid to further optimise cargo operations and capacity, Emirates SkyCargo has also started loading cargo in the overhead bins and seats of its Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircraft. Nabil Sultan, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice President, Cargo said: "We took a measured approach to the loading of cargo inside the cabins of our Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircraft. "We have operated flights from stations such as Tokyo and New Delhi with cargo in the overhead bins and seats and are now in a position to be able to safely and optimally respond to customer demands for additional cargo capacity from main global production markets. We will be operating more flights over the coming weeks with cargo in both the belly as well as inside the main cabin. In addition, we are also looking at other measures including the removal of seats from select aircraft to deploy on high demand trade lanes," said Sultan. For the loading of cargo in the seats and overhead bins inside the passenger cabin of the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, the air cargo carrier has developed a robust set of guidelines for its global teams on handling procedures and has also introduced a smart calculator application to help its employees around the world to calculate optimal loading capacity inside the passenger cabin of Emirates’ Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Emirates SkyCargo would be able to provide up to 24 tonnes of additional cargo capacity with complete loading of overhead bins and seats in its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.