Qatar Airways Cargo will begin scheduled dedicated freighter services to two new destinations- Hyderabad (India) and London Stansted (UK) and has restarted services to Zaragoza (Spain).
“Our goal is to be a world-class air cargo service provider. In order to achieve that, we need to constantly increase frequencies and expand our number of destinations, so that our customers can benefit from our global reach,” said Qatar Airways Chief Officer (Cargo) Ulrich Ogiermann.
“The addition of these new freighter routes clearly represents yet another milestone in Qatar Airways’ growth strategy,” Ogiermann said.
“And on top of this, we will take delivery of three new freighter aircraft in the course of 2014- two B777F and one A330-F.”
Hyderabad will be the first new destination to be added to the Qatar Airways Cargo network, with the start on April 1 of a twice weekly service, using the A330 freighter. Main exports from Hyderabad will include IT products and pharmaceuticals.
Qatar Airways already operates a daily passenger flight between Doha and Hyderabad.
And from May 2, Qatar Airways Cargo will begin five weekly Boeing 777 freighter flights to London Stansted.
Renowned for its operational capacity and infrastructure quality, Stansted is one of the largest freight hubs in the UK and home to an international cargo operation that transports more than 200,000 tonnes of goods annually to destinations worldwide.
The scheduled twice-weekly Airbus A330 freighter service to Zaragoza commenced on March 1. Textiles, agricultural products, footwear, automobile and pharmaceuticals are the major commodities expected to ship from Zaragoza.
In addition to the new routes, Qatar Airways Cargo recently strengthened its product portfolio with the launch in January 2014 of two new premium services that optimise the transportation of time and temperature-sensitive goods, including high-value pharmaceutical products and perishables.
The new services, QR Pharma and QR Fresh, add to the company’s substantial range of cargo services and further enhance its capacity and flexibility to effectively move sensitive commodities in line with the highest world-class standards.
In December 2013, the first Qatar Airways cargo shipment was received at the new cargo facility at Hamad International Airport.
The enormous, state-of-the-art facility, spanning more than 77,000 square metres, contains a perishables storage area, amongst other key facilities, such as a live animal centre and dangerous goods area.
The new self-contained terminal will handle 1.4mn tonnes of cargo a year.
A Qatar Airways A330 Freighter.
