Category Archives: International

At the 11th World Cargo Symposium opened in Abu Dhabi, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) called on the air cargo industry to accelerate modernisation and focus on delivering high quality service. “Listening to the customer has never been more important. The positive forces currently supporting growth are good news. But our customers are telling us that they expect more. Complicated and convoluted paper-based processes that are basically unchanged from the 16th century is still being used in air cargo today. Our customers pay a premium to ship by air and they rightly expect modern processes and high quality services,” said Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO, IATA.

The 11th World Cargo Symposium 2017 opened at a remarkable note in Abu Dhabi. The symposium is meeting at a time of thoughtful optimism which is far too rare in the air cargo industry. After several years of virtually no growth, the industry is starting to see demand pick up. Freight volumes began to grow in the second half of 2016. And the momentum is carrying over into this year with January demand rising nearly seven per cent over the previous year. Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO has shared a clear vision of how that historical role continues to manifest itself. “It is great to see such forward thinking at the highest levels of government on the strategic benefits of aviation to the national economy,” he adds.

Emirates SkyCargo has also been awarded the certification of compliance under the EU Good Distribution Practice guidelines (GDP) for medicinal products for human use by Bureau Veritas following an audit conducted by the certification agency’s team from Germany. The certification validates the carrier’s adherence to the strict guidelines on the transport and handling of pharmaceutical products and covers all Emirates SkyCargo handling activities for pharmaceutical products at its hub in Dubai. Emirates SkyCargo is the first cargo airline in the world that has obtained GDP certification for its hub operations covering two airports and the 24/7 bonded trucking service that connects cargo between them. The carrier also operates the largest GDP certified area in the world offering a total area of 8,600 square metres of combined handling space dedicated for pharmaceutical products at Dubai International Airport and Dubai World Central.

Emirates SkyPharma, Emirates SkyCargo’s new purpose-built facility dedicated exclusively to the timely and secure transport of temperature sensitive pharmaceutical shipments at Dubai International Airport (DXB) was officially inaugurated on September 18, 2016 by his Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group. The new purpose built Emirates SkyPharma facility, part of the new 11,000 square metre extension of Emirates SkyCentral terminal at Dubai International Airport, offers 4,000 square metres of space dedicated to pharmaceutical cargo. It also features temperature controlled zones (2-8 degree Celsius and 15-25 degree Celsius), 88 temperature controlled individual positions in the automated ULD (aircraft pallet) handling system and 5 temperature controlled acceptance and delivery truck docks. The new Emirates SkyPharma facility at Dubai International airport works in conjunction with Emirates SkyCentral DWC, the carrier’s freighter hub in Dubai World Central which offers 4,600 square metres of dedicated area for pharmaceutical cargo.