Later this month, Emirates SkyCargo intends launching a Boeing 777 freighter service form Brussels to Dubai. This is what high ranking members of the local cargo community at Zaventem have confirmed to CargoForwarder Global.
So far, Emirates has officially not announced the upcoming service but is expected to do so in a couple of days. The aircraft would connect the two airports twice a week on the return leg of the
777F form Chicago. Possibly, but not confirmed either, this would be part of the rotation Dubai-Amsterdam-Chicago-Brussels-Dubai.
Emirates started serving Brussels with a passenger flight in September 2014. Right from the start the additional lower deck capacity brought into BRU provided by the Arabian carrier was much
welcomed by the local forwarding community. At Brussels a wide range of industrial goods, also pharmaceuticals and typical Belgian export products such as chocolates are loaded on board the
aircraft.
Continuous growth
The introduction of new freighter services will give another boost to the airport’s cargo volume, which has increased by 9.5% to 365,402 tonnes over the first 9 months of this year. This is
mainly due to its full-freighter volume, growing by 23.5% to 109,493 tonnes. DHL Express traffic grew by 5.5% to 146,639 tonnes. Similar to other airports, belly cargo sharply decreased (-8.9%)
in September - showing a marginal growth of 0.8% only over the first 9 months.
Additional belly volume will, however, be brought by the introduction of Finnair’s new A350, which offers the market a capacity increase for transporting cargo between 16% and 20%. The Nordic
airline’s flagship will serve Brussels, Finnair Cargo’s Central-European hub, twice a week.
Marcel Schoeters in Brussels
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