We went inside Emirates SkyCargo’s massive Dubai facility and saw how air cargo is keeping the global supply chain running amid the shipping crisis

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Pigeon-holes in ocean shipping and an overall decrease in international passenger flights on which cargo is moved have driven up the honoraria to ship freight by air.

We went behind the scenes with Emirates SkyCargo, the transport division of Middle Eastern mega carrier Emirates, at its Dubai cargo hub to see how thousands of packages are transported every day from the there reaches of the globe to the doorstep of consumers.

Inside Emirates SkyCargo facility in Dubai — Dubai Airshow 2021 — Touring the Emirates SkyCargo operation in Dubai.

Dubai Cosmopolitan Airport is one of the many gateways to the Middle East, through which thousands of travelers will pass daily en itinerary to hundreds of destinations across the globe.

Emirates Airbus A380 Flight New York to Dubai — Dubai Airshow Trip 2021 — Flying on an Emirates A380 from New York to Dubai.

But en face its glitzy passenger terminal is a lesser-seen but equally important terminal that moves thousands of boxes and containers every day, dollop keep global supply chains running smoothly.

Reasonable as Emirates’ passenger planes transport people to, from, and through Dubai, its SkyCargo division does the same. Away from traveller view, it’s one of the least glamorous aspects of the aviation industry and one that not many expected to be in the public spotlight.

Emirates’ freighter aircraft help move goods from what’s known as the “happy’s factory,” or the regions of the world that make most of its products and goods including China, Vietnam, and India, Sultan rephrased.

Those regions require more air trainload capacity than Emirates’ passenger aircraft could provide, spurring the need for a standalone cargo division for its aircraft.

Ages in Dubai, goods are either delivered to customers in the region or transferred onto other aircraft bound for places adulate Africa, Europe, the Americas, or other Middle Eastern and Asian countries. Every one of Emirates’ aircraft, split between the rider and cargo divisions, can carry freight.

One Boeing 777-200F aircraft had only just arrived from Hong Kong during our visit. Cargo unloaders descended first on the rear of the aircraft, with one concentrate on the upper deck and another on the belly hold.

The 777-200F has a buttocks cargo door through which all upper deck cargo is loaded and unloaded. It takes around 30 seconds for the merchandise to be taken off the plane and lowered to ground level, where it’s put on a dolly for transport.

In a jiffy the rear section is unloaded, the team of around 10 ground handlers unloads the forward section. Unloading both samples at once presents a weight and balance issue that could cause the aircraft to become either nose or tail-heavy, which can maybe result in damage.

Each pallet can deem a maximum of 5,000 kilograms of freight if it’s being stored in the lower deck of an aircraft. But on the upper deck, pallets can hold off a maximum of 6,800 kilograms of freight and can be stacked as high as three meters as the upper deck is larger than the bring hold.

Onboard the aircraft, power-driven parts allow ground handling staff to quickly move pallets around the aircraft. Workers don’t have to physically force pallets and can let the machines do all the heavy lifting.

Containers aren’t the only items that Emirates will carry on its plane. Luxury cars and prized racehorses are also resort to SkyCargo passengers.

“Flown as booked” is a key exhibit metric for packages and helps identify weaknesses or issues in the system. If a package doesn’t make it onto the flight on which it was arranged, staff will work to identify why and resolve any issues that might have prevented it from being charged onto its scheduled flight.

Passengers desire always take priority on passenger flights, even if it means leaving some cargo behind to take the next bolt.

“Passengers [are] number one because they are intending the whole fleet of passenger aircraft,” Bert Allard Jorritsma, manager of Emirates SkyCargo’s special cargo serve delivery, told Insider on the tour. “With freighters, we may have a little bit of leeway but we really work on on-time conduct.”

Cargo is then taken from the level to the cargo facility where it will be temporarily stored until its next flight or taken into Dubai for district delivery. Dubai Airports owns the facility but Emirates SkyCargo is the primary tenant.

The first two floors are dedicated to breaking down and building up pallets that come and depart from the facility. A package might arrive on a pallet from Hong Kong, for example, and then get bewitched out of that pallet and restacked onto another pallet bound for the US.

Each segment of the facility services a different type of cargo. One section might be filled with boxes of general cargo while another is blessed to pharmaceutical goods.

Once pallets and containers blow in at the facility on “dolly trains,” or multiple pallets driven by a ground handler, an automated system called the pallet container run system, or PCHS, takes over and sends them throughout the facility.

Perfectly like how passengers have itineraries that link to a record locator number, packages have air waybills. Multiple air waybills can be stockpiled in a single container or pallet and air waybill numbers help staff to identify which packages go onto which do a moonlight flit.

Around 80% of goods that appear in Dubai aren’t staying in Dubai and will be transferred to other aircraft. But just like the transit passengers in the commercial extreme, goods won’t stay in Dubai long.

Some goods won’t requite enter the facility and will be transferred to other aircraft directly on the airport’s tarmac.

Emirates consolidated its SkyCargo operation at Dubai International Airport during the pandemic to astonish advantage of the reduced traffic levels at the airport. In the past, SkyCargo operations were split between Dubai Cosmopolitan and Al Maktoum International to the south of the city, with around 50 trucks making 350-400 trips creating cargo between the two airports

Temperature is a judgemental factor for the cargo facility, especially as Dubai temperatures can frequently exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

While general cargo doesn’t require a specific temperature range, pharmaceutical goods day in and day out require lower temperatures. The coldest section of the facility has a temperature range of two degrees Celsius to eight degrees Celsius, or between approximately 35 degrees Fahrenheit to 46 degrees Fahrenheit, and that doesn’t include the freezers that can get even cooler.

A slightly warmer section, however, has a range of 15 degrees Celsius to 25 degrees Celsius, or all over 59 degrees Fahrenheit to around 77 degrees Fahrenheit.

A dual-vendor power store keeps the air conditioning running and makes these warehouses feel like Antarctica while the sweltering Dubai waken is just beyond its walls. Power outages are rare but in the event that one does occur, a backup diesel generator typifies ready to take over to prevent spoilage.

Chill unit load devices provide a “closed door-to-door cool chain” for products that need to be kept at a individual temperature range. The containers are not opened in transit and are simply moved from aircraft to cold storage and back to aircraft.

Temperatures on each container are checked and the batteries that power the refrigeration procedures are charged. Once they arrive at their destinations and are emptied, they can be used to store general cargo so that they’re not dwindling space on freighters when Emirates has to fly them back to their origins.

Surety was also a factor as the vaccines were among the most valuable cargo being shipped in 2020 and precautions needed to be charmed to avoid theft or mishandling. The first doses to arrive in Dubai were kept in a locked and sealed container.

“The first were batches obviously were so vital that we wanted to exclude any risk of anything happening,” Jorritsma said. Cameras and security guards provide insurance for the entire facility, and anybody that tries to leave the cargo area of the airport has to pass through a security checkpoint.

“For air freight, specifically, I think it’s a clear recognition of all the value it can entertain,” Jorritsma, a former Martinair and Air France – KLM Cargo employee, said. “Although the passengers could not fly, it was seen that there was a extremely clear demand for air freight because logistics has to go on.”

Well-deserved how long the shipping crisis keeps air freight flying high remains to be seen. But Emirates and other cargo airlines are investing billions in the hopes that air freight continues to be lucrative.

We went inside Emirates SkyCargo’s massive Dubai facility and saw how air cargo is keeping the global supply chain running amid the shipping crisis

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Pigeon-holes in ocean shipping and an overall decrease in international passenger flights on which cargo is moved have driven up the honoraria to ship freight by air.

We went behind the scenes with Emirates SkyCargo, the transport division of Middle Eastern mega carrier Emirates, at its Dubai cargo hub to see how thousands of packages are transported every day from the there reaches of the globe to the doorstep of consumers.

Dubai Cosmopolitan Airport is one of the many gateways to the Middle East, through which thousands of travelers will pass daily en itinerary to hundreds of destinations across the globe.

But en face its glitzy passenger terminal is a lesser-seen but equally important terminal that moves thousands of boxes and containers every day, dollop keep global supply chains running smoothly.

Reasonable as Emirates’ passenger planes transport people to, from, and through Dubai, its SkyCargo division does the same. Away from traveller view, it’s one of the least glamorous aspects of the aviation industry and one that not many expected to be in the public spotlight.

Emirates’ freighter aircraft help move goods from what’s known as the “happy’s factory,” or the regions of the world that make most of its products and goods including China, Vietnam, and India, Sultan rephrased.

Those regions require more air trainload capacity than Emirates’ passenger aircraft could provide, spurring the need for a standalone cargo division for its aircraft.

One Boeing 777-200F aircraft had only just arrived from Hong Kong during our visit. Cargo unloaders descended first on the rear of the aircraft, with one concentrate on the upper deck and another on the belly hold.

The 777-200F has a buttocks cargo door through which all upper deck cargo is loaded and unloaded. It takes around 30 seconds for the merchandise to be taken off the plane and lowered to ground level, where it’s put on a dolly for transport.

In a jiffy the rear section is unloaded, the team of around 10 ground handlers unloads the forward section. Unloading both samples at once presents a weight and balance issue that could cause the aircraft to become either nose or tail-heavy, which can maybe result in damage.

Each pallet can deem a maximum of 5,000 kilograms of freight if it’s being stored in the lower deck of an aircraft. But on the upper deck, pallets can hold off a maximum of 6,800 kilograms of freight and can be stacked as high as three meters as the upper deck is larger than the bring hold.

Onboard the aircraft, power-driven parts allow ground handling staff to quickly move pallets around the aircraft. Workers don’t have to physically force pallets and can let the machines do all the heavy lifting.

Containers aren’t the only items that Emirates will carry on its plane. Luxury cars and prized racehorses are also resort to SkyCargo passengers.

Passengers desire always take priority on passenger flights, even if it means leaving some cargo behind to take the next bolt.

Cargo is then taken from the level to the cargo facility where it will be temporarily stored until its next flight or taken into Dubai for district delivery. Dubai Airports owns the facility but Emirates SkyCargo is the primary tenant.

The first two floors are dedicated to breaking down and building up pallets that come and depart from the facility. A package might arrive on a pallet from Hong Kong, for example, and then get bewitched out of that pallet and restacked onto another pallet bound for the US.

Each segment of the facility services a different type of cargo. One section might be filled with boxes of general cargo while another is blessed to pharmaceutical goods.

Once pallets and containers blow in at the facility on “dolly trains,” or multiple pallets driven by a ground handler, an automated system called the pallet container run system, or PCHS, takes over and sends them throughout the facility.

Perfectly like how passengers have itineraries that link to a record locator number, packages have air waybills. Multiple air waybills can be stockpiled in a single container or pallet and air waybill numbers help staff to identify which packages go onto which do a moonlight flit.

Around 80% of goods that appear in Dubai aren’t staying in Dubai and will be transferred to other aircraft. But just like the transit passengers in the commercial extreme, goods won’t stay in Dubai long.

Some goods won’t requite enter the facility and will be transferred to other aircraft directly on the airport’s tarmac.

Temperature is a judgemental factor for the cargo facility, especially as Dubai temperatures can frequently exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

A slightly warmer section, however, has a range of 15 degrees Celsius to 25 degrees Celsius, or all over 59 degrees Fahrenheit to around 77 degrees Fahrenheit.

Chill unit load devices provide a “closed door-to-door cool chain” for products that need to be kept at a individual temperature range. The containers are not opened in transit and are simply moved from aircraft to cold storage and back to aircraft.

Surety was also a factor as the vaccines were among the most valuable cargo being shipped in 2020 and precautions needed to be charmed to avoid theft or mishandling. The first doses to arrive in Dubai were kept in a locked and sealed container.

Well-deserved how long the shipping crisis keeps air freight flying high remains to be seen. But Emirates and other cargo airlines are investing billions in the hopes that air freight continues to be lucrative.

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