Early years Emirates SkyCargo was established in October 1985, at the same time as
Emirates was launched, operating as a separate entity from its parent company. In its first year, Emirates SkyCargo handled over 10,000 tonnes of freight. Emirates SkyCargo leased the entire freighter fleet from Emirates while also taking over management of the cargo holds in all of Emirates' passenger aircraft. The airline received its first award in 1989. Since then, Emirates SkyCargo has received more than 100 international awards – including
Best Cargo Airline to the Middle East for 20 years in a row. On October 3, 1993, Emirates SkyCargo signed an agreement with EC International to handle all cargo shipments from the United States to 24 countries serviced by Emirates in the
Middle East,
Indian sub-continent,
Europe and the
Far East. New routes were launched when both Emirates began growing. Amsterdam was launched in 1997, the same year Emirates SkyCargo was experiencing growth and accounting for 16% of The Emirates Group's revenue.
Development since the 2000s In May 2003, Emirates SkyCargo took delivery of a Boeing 747-400F, taking the freighter fleet to three Boeing 747Fs. Emirates SkyCargo was operating two Boeing 747-400Fs with capacity for 120 tonnes and a Boeing 747-200F with capacity for 110 tonnes. In September 2004, the airline launched freighter services to
Johannesburg and
Lahore. On November 20, 2005, Emirates announced orders for eight Boeing 777Fs, with the first aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2007, at the
Dubai Airshow. In 2005, Emirates SkyCargo and
Korean Air Cargo signed an agreement to codeshare cargo capacity on two routes from India – Delhi and Mumbai. In the financial year ending March 2006, Emirates SkyCargo announced revenues of over $1 billion and carried over one million tonnes of cargo. The freighter fleet included four freighters: one Boeing 747-400F and three Airbus A310-300Fs. In the same year, the airline also launched a freighter service to
Barcelona using the A310-300F. During the
Farnborough Air Show in July 2006, Emirates signed a Heads of Agreement for ten
Boeing 747-8F aircraft to be powered by General Electric's GEnx jet engines in a deal worth
US$3.3 billion. In July 2008, Emirates sold these ten 747-8F frames as well as its earlier ordered eight 777F frames to Dubai Aerospace Enterprises, and agreed to lease them back. In 2008, Emirates SkyCargo moved its operations into its new
Cargo Mega Terminal, built on a 43,600 square metre site, has increased the ground-handling capacity by 1.2 million tonnes per year. The new addition increases Dubai International Airport's throughput capacity to 1.6 million tons a year. On 27 March 2009, Emirates SkyCargo took delivery of its first Boeing 777F, bringing its total fleet to eight aircraft. During the financial year 2008–09, Emirates SkyCargo handled 1.4 million tonnes of freight, which was a 9.8 per cent increase over the previous year. The division produced revenues of AED6.7bn in 2007–8. Emirates SkyCargo generated 19 per cent of The Emirates Group's total revenues, which increased 9.9 per cent to AED44.2bn despite an 82 per cent fall in its net profits, to AED982m. The Emirates SkyCargo service alone employed over 1,000 people as of 2009. In November 2011, DAE cancelled five of the 747-8F orders and converted them to five 777Fs. In December 2012, DAE cancelled the remaining five 747-8F, with Emirates SkyCargo focusing its fleet on the 777F only. In April 2013, Emirates SkyCargo was voted
Air Cargo News Cargo Airline of the Year. In July 2013, work started on a SkyCargo terminal. Once complete, Emirates will move their freighter operations from
Dubai International Airport to the new facility at
Dubai World Central - Al Maktoum International Airport. The facility is being built by
Amana Contracting and Steel Buildings. In May 2015, Emirates SkyCargo became the largest air freight carrier in the world to ban the transport of lion, tiger, rhino and elephant hunting trophies, even if they were obtained legally. On April 1, 2020, Emirates transferred their cargo handling operations from Emirates SkyCentral DWC to Dubai International Airport in order to modernize the operations between freighter flights and the new cargo flights. On June 24, 2020, Emirates introduced additional cargo capacity by using 14 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with their seats removed from the economy class cabin. In November 2020, Emirates SkyCargo started to fly Emirates A380s as temporary freighters known as "Mini Freighters" to help combat the additional cargo freight needed with countries experiencing second waves of COVID-19. These will join the Emirates 777-300ER that have already been converted to cargo flights. An A380 has around 50 tonnes of cargo space per flight in the cargo hold in belly of the plane, this is just under 50% the amount of cargo a 777F can carry. On November 15, 2021, Emirates announced an order for a pair of 777F aircraft from Boeing at the 2021 Dubai Airshow. This will be the airline's first order directly from Boeing instead of through a leasing agency, and these will join the current fleet of 777F and relieve some of the converted freighters. On November 8, 2022, Emirates announced a firm order for five Boeing 777F aircraft, with two aircraft to be delivered in 2024 and the remaining three in 2025. On July 16, 2024, Emirates announced that it would order an additional five Boeing 777F aircraft, with deliveries between 2025 and 2026. == Business figures ==