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The new daily belly-hold capacity supplements the current twice weekly freighter service to Chicago from Dubai, which was launched in March 2013. The first of the weekly freighter flights, which departs Dubai on a Thursday, connects with Chicago via Copenhagen and Amsterdam, while the second weekly flight on a Sunday has a stop in Copenhagen.
“As a city with one of the highest GDPs in the United States, and it being home to some of the world’s largest and best known companies, makes Chicago and its greater area, a very important commercial and economic hub. Before we started freighter services to the city, it was already a growing feeder market for our cargo services from New York,” said Duncan Watson, Emirates Vice President, Cargo Commercial Southern Africa and Americas.
“Since then we have had a steady increase in the tonnage of cargo moved into and out of Chicago. For example in 2009, we carried 4,900 tons of cargo from Chicago via New York, whereas for the first six months of this year we have already carried nearly the same amount. On the imports side, we carried just 190 tons in 2009, which has grown to over 2000 tons in the same six month period. The additional capacity on new daily Chicago flight will further stimulate demand for our cargo services to Dubai and onto our worldwide network,” he added.
The top markets to which Emirates SkyCargo carries Chicago’s exports include the UAE, Australia, India and Saudi Arabia, while its imports are mainly from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, India and the Scandinavian markets.
Chicago’s imports and exports are diverse and range from agricultural goods, to mobile phones, fresh food, fashion goods and pharmaceuticals. Amongst its key imports are hi-tech products such as computer parts and telecommunications products, machinery components, land vehicles and parts, garments, personal household goods, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Its main exports are raw materials and industrial consumables, machinery components, capital equipment, fashion goods, frozen and fresh foods. Emirates SkyCargo currently serves 10 destinations in the United States. These are: New York, Washington D.C., Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston, Houston, Atlanta and Chicago, the latter three of which are also freighter destinations.
Emirates flight EK235 departs Dubai International Airport daily at 0945hrs and lands in Chicago at 1525hrs. The return flight, EK236, departs Chicago at 2035hrs and arrives in Dubai at 1910hrs the next day. Emirates SkyCargo has a fleet of 13 freighters, 10 Boeing 777Fs and two Boeing 747-400ERFs, which serve more than 50 destinations around the world from its freighter hub at Dubai World Central’s Al Maktoum International Airport.
From wingtip to cockpit – 800 workers in 80 days
Emirates operates the world’s largest fleet of A380 aircraft, with 50 of these graceful feats of modern engineering currently serving 29 global destinations. All of Emirates’ A380s have been furnished and delivered via the Airbus facility in Hamburg.
First, the aircraft fuselage is produced in Hamburg and then transported to Toulouse for the first stage of final assembly. The wing sections, produced in the UK, are also shipped from Airbus’s Hamburg facility to Toulouse. Parts like the fuselage and wings are transferred through a transportation network that includes three specially-commissioned ships to carry the sections from production sites throughout Europe. Over 10,000 bolts are used to connect the fuselage and over 4,000 for the wings.
The first part of final assembly, which takes place in Toulouse, yields an aircraft that is ready for its first ferry flight, sans its interior and paint.
After assembly, each of the five sections of the fuselage is tested by engineers, and then the aircraft is off to Hamburg for painting and cabin furnishing. It takes 30 people approximately 10 days to paint the A380, which has a surface area of 3,150 square metres – approximately the size of seven professional basketball courts. Over 500 kilogrammes of paint is needed just to give the aircraft its white colour.
Cabin furnishing, to install Emirates’ distinctive on-board facilities comes in the final stages of the assembly process. It takes about 33 working days to furnish the 550 square metre cabin area on-board the Emirates A380. This includes all seats, galleys, crew rest areas, the unique shower-spa and private suites in First Class, the on-board lounge located at the back of the Business Class cabin, and the award-winning ice inflight entertainment system in all cabins. Emirates received 13 of the giant double decker aircraft in the last year. Over 28 million passengers have travelled on the Emirates A380 over the last six years of operations, and more travellers can look forward to the experience as Emirates adds more A380 destinations to its route network. New A380 destinations planned for this year include: Frankfurt on 1 September, Dallas on 1 October, San Francisco on 1 December and Houston on 3 December. |
