Etihad Cargo announced more freight capacity in Tanzania, Switzerland and the U.S.
Etihad Cargo began a weekly freighter service to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. On the return flight to Abu Dhabi, the freighter will stop in Nairobi.
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s biggest city, is a major industrial and economic center in East Africa. The freighter service will operate every Monday to Julius Nyerere International Airport.
Etihad Cargo will deploy one of its three Airbus A330-200 wide-body freighters on the route, offering uplift of up to 64 tonnes.
Initially, the airline expects the service to carry heavy electronics, medical equipment and food items to Dar es Salaam, with primarily perishable goods destined for the Gulf region and Europe loaded for the return flights.
“Tanzania is a new market for Etihad Cargo, and our weekly Abu Dhabi-Dar es Salaam-Nairobi-Abu Dhabi routing will allow us to capitalize on the strong import and export demand to and from one of the fastest growing cities in Africa,” Kevin Knight, Etihad Airways’ chief strategy and planning officer, said. “This Dar es Salaam service will facilitate trade between the UAE and Tanzania, in addition to offering customers across the Middle East, subcontinent and Europe bidirectional maindeck cargo solutions to and from a major trading center on the African continent.”
Etihad Cargo also enhanced its cargo services to and from Switzerland and the U.S., by offering bellyhold cargo capacity on flights between Abu Dhabi and Zurich and Los Angeles, respectively.
The new Abu Dhabi-Zurich services offer cargo customers 260 tonnes of weekly bellyhold uplift capability, while flights between Abu Dhabi and Los Angeles will offer 130 tonnes of weekly bellyhold volume.
Etihad Airways is deploying an Airbus A330-300 aircraft on the Abu Dhabi-Zurich route, with services to Los Angeles initially being operated by an Airbus A340-500 aircraft, before switching to a Boeing 777-200LR aircraft starting July 15.
“In total, we now offer just over 510 tonnes of weekly cargo capacity to and from Switzerland, and 940 tonnes to and from the U.S., with unique access out of both countries to the Gulf region, the Indian subcontinent market, Africa and many parts of Asia,” Knight said. “Our new cargo capability to Zurich and Los Angeles will appeal particularly to the valuable goods, pharmaceutical, textile, machinery and fresh produce sectors, and we look forward to working with our customers to facilitate more trade across our network.”
The increase in cargo capacity comes against a background of rising tonnage flown by Etihad Cargo. In 2013, Etihad Cargo carried more than 6,700 tonnes of goods to and from Switzerland, up 21 percent on 2012, while tonnage to and from the U.S. over the same period rose 54 percent to 36,000 tonnes.