The world of cargo in the aviation business continues to expand, and Africa is leading the exports of corruption. This has been a major addition to the advancements of Emirates Sky Cargo, a subsidiary of the Emirates Group. The company's senior vice president is Dennis Lister, who was in charge of cargo products and innovation, and is concerned with current trends in cargo, success stories in Africa, and with particular attention to Africa, Emirates Skycargo's advances in the cargo business. He's talking. In this interview with Olasunkanmi Akinlotan
When did Emirates Skycargo start operations and how deeply entrenched it in Africa?
In Africa, 172 passenger flights and eight cargo ships operate to 20 gateways each week.
If you're looking at Africa, these are the main gateways we feed. If you're looking at the main feeds you have from Africa, I think it's very interesting. There is a mix of fresh foods in terms of food, vegetables, meat, fruits, and so on.
From north to south, even from Namibia, we currently ship all the way through berries, tangos, dates and a whole range of things. Our main market is Nairobi. It operates 33% of the total volume from Nairobi.
18% of our total amount comes from Johannesburg, with 12% from Cape Town and 7% from Uganda in Entebbe. This is our biggest network of manipulating volumes feeding out of Africa. And when you look at our network, we have a total fleet of 259 aircraft. Ten of these are dedicated cargo ships.
There are also 5 wet wreaths 747. Particularly local to this country (Kenya), we operate two cargo ships a week and two passenger flights daily. So our commitment to Africa continues.
As one of my colleagues told me before, when you throw seeds into the ground in Africa, something grows, you start the farm and you can start shipping. And that's essentially what we're doing here in Africa and continues to support our capabilities. It can be communicated that other airlines are withdrawing from Africa and relocating cargo ships to address the rise of e-commerce in various markets in the Far East.
Our commitment remains here and we continue to provide capabilities from Africa. So we put the cargo ship in Nairobi. And this continues from our perspective.
Looking at our fleet, we will increase the number of freighters with 15 or more people over the next 10 years. And the goal is to inject more cargo ship capacity into Africa, supporting growers and farmers, allowing them to export to other parts of the world. The other is to support food and supply, as countries around the world have a continuous flow of food within the country.
What challenges did Skycargo face during the Covid-19 pandemic?
This makes me logistics and resilience. And that's really important. If you're looking, reminding me of Covid-19 in 2020 when the network was shut down in 2020, the capacity disappeared. Food has stopped moving around the world. And we soon started our fleet, the passenger fleet, and began carrying cargo. Even on passenger aircraft, the Boeing 777-300RS has become a mini cargo ship.
We have started manipulating them all around the world to start supply chains again. Because everyone is dependent on the supply chain. Logistics was a small factor from the understanding of people before Covid-19. But the moment you turn it off, people realize the impact you have on people who grow on farms and jobs and bring their products to the market. So we keep flying. That's our commitment here in Africa.
We continue to support that and as the world grows, I think there is a lot to do. More exports are coming out of Africa and show commitment by investing in infrastructure and people. Africa is our single largest perishable market. A common denominator with all of these export markets can be found to be prone to rotting either in fruit, vegetables, or fish. However, inbound, it is very important to us with inbound cargo.
Inbound is a drug. There are drug export markets in Egypt and South Africa, but mostly our biggest business is rotten. And because of its perishable business, we invest a lot in cold chains. We work very closely with the major ground handlers who have infrastructure to take care of fresh food and make sure they keep them cold so that they last longer. And it is for all fresh foods, not just flowers. And it comes out in our network in Dubai.
Generally, all our aircraft are part of the flower cargo ship going directly, but the rest of the passengers go to Dubai and to our hub. There is also the world's largest cold chain facility. Also, if this cargo is a critical risk point when it is outside the tarmac, there is a cool dolly on the ramp to protect the cargo. And we protect it using our cool dolly.
Outbound from Dubai, we are working very closely with ground handlers around the world to ensure that they have the infrastructure they need to maintain that cold chain facility. So, the whole of Africa is very important to us and will grow. Due to the capabilities we bring to the market, much of it will be deployed in Africa.
As for numbers, how many tons of fresh food do you take out from the continent?
Looking at Africa alone, we travel 95,000 tons of water from Africa every year. This is 95 million kilometres. What did you think is the difference between fresh and hard cargo? The difference is because it's a priority. That's what Africa creates.
Another 20 million kilometres are corrupted. We are still carrying other products, just as we are carrying diamonds and gold from Africa. This is very important. So we're not one-trick pony. We work all vertically. We invest our infrastructure in the fixing of diamonds and gold. Whether it's 2-8 degrees or 15-25 ambient, you'll invest in your infrastructure in terms of getting perishable movements at the right temperature.
Make sure your entire supply chain is managed very carefully. Another thing that really matters is that it is now considered a premium airline. So we have to stand behind the badge. That's why it means it runs at 99% performance through the hub. We are one of the world's most performant international airlines. And it should ensure that all customers across Africa will maintain product integrity when moving from Africa through hubs in Dubai and Phoenix and other parts of the world, wherever the airport is. is.
And that's the most important thing for us. Product integrity, quality of service, and mere security for customers is that such things are running on time. As I said earlier, performance on time runs at 99% performance.
Who is your partner at Affrica who will promote your business?
That's a great question. We use so many partners because I think your claims about your partner are fundamentally important. We at Emirates are as strong as our weakest link, or as strong as our strongest partner. Therefore, our choice of partners across Africa is a variety of handling agents across Africa. Building partnerships locally. It doesn't set up your own infrastructure there. We depend on our partners. And that's how it works. However, make sure you have the exact requirements needed to handle the cargo. Some airports may have only one handler, but in most cases there are multiple handlers. So it is our team's job to make sure we select the right handler for the type of product we are moving.
We saw Covid-19 in terms of the pandemic and emerging diseases. There is Ebola in East Africa right now, right? Also, Marburg and other serious infections are approaching. How are you prepared as an airline to ensure that these vaccines and drugs are where they need them on time?
We all know too long ago, but we hit the whole world. This is a global pandemic. I think we learned a lot from it. When you have a pandemic of the size that removes the free flow of goods around the world, I think we underestimate how the world can kneel.
Luckily, we invested a lot in our infrastructure. This is my first point, infrastructure, which is important. Is there a suitable infrastructure? Eight or nine years ago, we spent $200 million in Dubai on our shed facilities to ensure our infrastructure was in place. And we had no idea that the pandemic around the world would be problematic, but we prepared and built our infrastructure.
So what we do is prepare from the perspective of infrastructure, people and training that connects to SOPS (operational standards). If you have these four components, some of the difficulties can be easily addressed. Look at the recent constraints of the Suez Canal. So let's explain that question in an instance. When we are hit by a pandemic or something, it could be Ebola. It could be one of these cases.
It's the ability to respond in a way that allows you to quickly provide the expected alternative solution, as you may not be able to provide the original solution you had in mind. I found another solution. I created a multimodal solution.
With medicines, we make them an absolute top priority for carrying them on. So, once a critical illness occurs and begins, pharma and vaccines, and even preventive medical care and treatment, get to that destination by getting to its flight. And with Africa, to the extent we have, you see Covid-19, we are the motives of the world's biggest vaccines, and mostly the biggest places we move vaccines It was Africa.
We have confirmed that we have the priority and ability to make sure we can get those vaccines here. And that applies to certain types of illnesses, treatments, etc. that occur. It's all a priority and it's about making it available for boarding.
