Emirates inaugurates new freighter terminal

After a decade of planning, construction and gradual traffic buildup, Emirates SkyCargo officially inaugurated its spacious new SkyCentral cargo terminal this week at Dubai World Central (DWC) . The facility, located at the logistics district in Dubai South, is home to Emirates’ fleet of 15 freighter aircraft. It was opened in conjunction with the Dubai Air Show.

“The space it currently occupies on the land allocated to us at Dubai South is part of a much bigger area, which we can develop over time to increase our cargo handling capacity to achieve our vision of 12 million tonnes annually by 2050, from the current 2.3 million tonnes,” said Nabil Sultan, Emirates divisional senior vice president, cargo.

Sultan continued by saying that the facility further establishes Dubai as a leading global air hub, located strategically between east and west trade routes, which is convenient to nearby factories and forwarders.

Last year, Dubai Airports, the operator of DWC and the older Dubai International Airport (DXB), located just  48 miles away, decided to divide maindeck and belly freighter operations between the two facilities. Over a period of several months, the freighters that had served DXB were shifted in stages to DWC, where the new SkyCentral is located

To handle cargo moving between belly holds and full freighters, SkyCargo has established a dual operation that trucks airfreight by road between DXB’s Cargo Mega Terminal and DWC’s SkyCentral , which the carriers said has become a “seamless operation.” Average transit time between the arrival of goods to their departure from freighter to belly hold and vice-versa is about is five hours.

Guests and media members who attended the SkyCentral event were given a tour of the centralized screening areas to view security systems, cool chain storage areas and various materials handling equipment, including dolly systems that can make quick transfer of six ULDs at the same time. The dedicated freighter facility has 12 aircraft stands directly in front of the terminal, in close proximity to both aircraft and receiving docks for efficient movement of goods.