Managers from Emirates SkyCargo’s 100-plus stations around the world recently came to Dubai for the company’s Worldwide Conference 2008.

Since the event was last held in 2006, nearly 20 new SkyCargo destinations have opened.

During the three-day event, the award winning carrier fine-tuned its strategies for tackling the challenges in the year ahead.

“The coming year will not be easy,” divisional senior vice-president, cargo, Ram Menen warned delegates. “But there is an upside. We will enter a ‘correction period’ where the market corrects itself.

“All carriers will have to refine their operating practices and airlines operating fuel inefficient aircraft will not survive. Yes, there are some big challenges ahead of us but this is also a great opportunity. We take delivery of our first Boeing 777 freighter this year and, with its 103-tonne payload, it will be by far the most fuel economical twin-engined freighter the world has ever seen.” 

Emirates, whose fleet has an average age of 67 months, will eventually operate eight Boeing 777 freighters, as well as 10 of equally fuel efficient Boeing 747-8 freighters.

In the 2007-08 financial year which ended March 31, Emirates SkyCargo reported record results. Despite the onset of high fuel prices, a US slowdown from the sub-prime crisis, and bad weather affecting agricultural production in key areas, the cargo division of Emirates Airline carried 1.3 million tonnes of cargo, an improvement of 10.9 per cent over the previous year’s 1.2 million tonnes and recorded a revenue increase of 20 per cent to Dh6.4 billion ($1.8 billion), up from Dh5.4 billion ($1.5 billion) in 2006-07.

Cargo revenue contributed 19 per cent to the airline’s total transport revenue, one of the highest contributions of any airline in the world with a similar fleet composition.

At the conference, the best performing stations in the last year were recognised at an awards presentation. The criteria for the eight awards included not only financial achievements, but flown as booked records, improved practices, efficient use of the SkyChain system, growth in traffic and more.

The award for the Best Performing Station Worldwide went to Hong Kong. Jacky Lau, cargo manager Hong Kong & South East China, accepted the award on behalf of the Hong Kong team.

Hong Kong is SkyCargo’s busiest station with 15 Boeing 747-400 freighters operating between there and Dubai every week. In 2007-08, Hong Kong recorded 27 per cent growth on the previous financial year.

The best performers in each region were: Turkey (Europe & North America); Lebanon (Middle East, Gulf & Iran); Egypt (Africa); Japan (East Asia & Australasia) and India (Indian Ocean). Forbes Air Services, Sri Lanka was awarded Best Supporting General Sales Agent, while Australia was recognised as the Most Effective SkyChain User. – TradeArabia News Service