São Paulo – Air freight company Emirates SkyCargo, a division of Emirates Airline, started operating weekly flights to the Viracopos airport, in the city of Campinas, in November 2010. Less than six months later, the company is already announcing an expansion. According to the senior vice president for Cargo, Ram Menen, within "four or five months," SkyCargo will offer another weekly flight between São Paulo and Dubai, with connections in Frankfurt, , and Dakar, in Senegal.
Emirates SkyCargo, which will take part in the leading transport fair in Latin America, Intermodal, this week, flies to Campinas on Mondays and Thursday. In the second half, it will offer another weekly flight. Presently, the São Paulo-Dubai route is flown by a Boeing 747-400F that carries 500 tonnes between Brazil and the United Arab Emirates each week.
Aside from this flight, a commercial aircraft of Emirates Airline’s (a Boeing 777-300ER) takes off from the Guarulhos airport carrying another 210 tonnes each week. The main items exported from Brazil to Dubai by SkyCargo include fruit, fertile eggs, beef and live fish. The main import items are pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
The expansion of SkyCargo’s business in Brazil should not be restricted to the airport of Campinas, where the company already operates. Emirates should also fly to Curitiba, in one of its three weekly flights. "Brazil is now a player in the major trade negotiations," Menen told ANBA this Tuesday (5th).
A few details are yet to be set before Emirates SkyCargo can fly to Curitiba, but once the route is operating ,it will not be a new flight, but rather a connection in one of the three weekly flights to Brazil.
The vice president of the air freight company stated that trade between Brazil and the Arab countries justifies the investment. In the first quarter this year, Brazil exported the equivalent of US$ 3.16 billion to Arab nations, 38% more than in the same period of last year, according to the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
As it invests in Brazil, Emirates sees its leading Arab competitors establish routes in the country. According to Menen, the competition does not harm the company’s business. "We like competition because it leads our service to improve. Brazil is a growing economy and competition only encourages us," he said.
Last yeara Qatar Airways inaugurated a daily enger flight from Doha, the Qatari capital, to São Paulo and Buenos Aires.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
