Despite the fact that worldwide air cargo traffic only grew 2.5 percent in 2015, Qatar Airways Cargo managed to increase its tonnage by 37.5 percent last year. The carrier reported increasing its tonnage from 1.1 million tonnes in 2014 to 1.5 million tonnes in 2015.
Import cargo to Doha increased by 29 percent, while ex-Doha traffic rose by 10 percent. Transit cargo at the Doha hub also ballooned by 39 percent in 2015.
To assist in this growth, Qatar recently took delivery of two A330Fs and a 747F nose-loader. Three more 777F’s are scheduled to arrive by the end of the year. With these deliveries, Qatar Cargo’s lift is now split nearly evenly between main-deck and bellyhold, with 51 percent carried on freighters and 49 percent in pax bellies.
Later this month, Qatar Airways Cargo is planning to launch three freighter routes to Budapest, Prague and Ho Chi Minh City, raising the carrier’s number of freighter destinations to 14 in Europe and six in the Asia-Pacific region.
In addition to new freighter routes, new belly capacity will be available in the coming months via the new destinations of Boston, Birmingham, Adelaide and Atlanta.