Emirates SkyCargo to Transport Upto 17 Tonnes More Cargo on Select Boeing 777-300ER Aircraft

Emirates has introduced additional cargo capacity by using Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with seats removed from the Economy Class cabin. The measure has been introduced in response to the strong air cargo market demand for the rapid, reliable and efficient transportation of essential commodities such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, food, machinery and other supplies around the world.

Watch a video of how Emirates Engineering modified the aircraft here.

Emirates SkyCargo will be operating 10 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with Economy Class seats removed allowing for up to 17 tonnes or 132 cubic metres of additional cargo capacity per flight on top of the 40-50 tonne cargo capacity in the belly hold of the widebody passenger aircraft. The modified Boeing 777-300ER aircraft are being deployed on routes to key production and consumer markets where Emirates SkyCargo sees maximum demand for movement of urgently required goods.

Nabil Sultan, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice President, Cargo said: “Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Emirates SkyCargo has taken very seriously its responsibility of connecting people and businesses across the world with the commodities that they urgently require. To this end, we have been working flat out, first to re-connect a global network of more than 85 destinations and then to introduce capacity options that fit what our customers demand from us including passenger aircraft flying only with belly hold cargo and loading cargo in the overhead bins and on passenger seats. Now, with the Emirates Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with modified Economy Class cabins, we will be able to transport even more cargo per flight, allowing for more cargo to reach their destination faster and for more efficient cargo operations.”

The modification of the Economy Class cabins of the 10 Emirates Boeing 777-300ER is being executed at the state of the art Emirates Engineering facilities in Dubai with each aircraft requiring close to 640 man-hours of work for the modification. Engineers remove 305 Economy Seats from one aircraft, fixing safety equipment and implementing regular load bearing tests during the process. Seven aircraft have already been modified by the Emirates Engineering team, with three more aircraft due to be ready by mid-July 2020.

Ahmed Safa, Divisional Senior Vice President Emirates Engineering said: “Converting our passenger aircraft to these mini freighters is certainly a sign of the times. Our teams have shown resilience, an innovative spirit, and adapted quickly to the needs of the changing business environment. We have risen to the twin challenges of new procedures and safety protocols within set timelines, and we are extremely proud of what we have achieved.”

By the end of the project, the Emirates Engineering team would have removed 3,050 seats, which will be safely and hygienically stored away till the time the aircraft are required for passenger services. The seats will be fitted back into the aircraft and tested for passenger safety and comfort.

With its focus on safety of operations, Emirates SkyCargo has implemented strict rules on the type of cargo that can be loaded inside the modified Economy Class cabins. Some of the cargo commodities that can be loaded include general cargo such as PPE and garments, pharmaceuticals that can be maintained within a temperature range of 15 and 25 degrees Celsius and perishables such as cut flowers, and select dry and non-smelling fruits and vegetables. Cargo loaded in the passenger cabins would need to be packaged inside a suitable external container such as a plastic or cardboard box in accordance with the latest regulations outlined by IATA.

Emirates SkyCargo is the freight division of Emirates. The air cargo carrier operates a combination of scheduled and chartered flights to more than 85 global destinations every week. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Emirates SkyCargo has been acting as a global conveyor belt connecting markets across the world to supplies of essential commodities including PPE, pharmaceuticals, food and other perishables, e-commerce goods as well as machinery and other equipment.

Emirates Engineering ensures that Emirates’ wide-body fleet of more than 260 aircraft are maintained in peak condition. The team is conducting regular parking checks on the grounded aircraft and scheduled A-checks, C-checks and operational maintenance on the flying fleet serving a mix of cargo and an increasing number of passenger destinations.

India's $100-b defence pie eyed by American miliary contractors

Eyeing India's estimated $100 billion defence pie, major U.S. arms suppliers are wooing Indian defence agents and officials as New Delhi embarks on a major military shopping spree to modernise its Soviet-era arsenal, a US media report said.

At the U.S. embassy in New Delhi, defence contractors such as Northrop Grumman are sponsoring little league baseball teams, the companies' names stitched onto the uniforms, the Washington Post said in a report from New Delhi.

Almost every weekend, there are cocktails and closed-door presentations in the suites of New Delhi's five-star hotels, hosted by retired admirals and generals from the US armed forces who now work for defence firms, such as Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, it said.

"India will look back-generations down the road-at this period as a defining moment for its new, modern military," the Post cited Roger Rose, chief executive of Lockheed Martin India, which is renting half a wing of New Delhi's Taj Palace Hotel for a 12-person office.

"I think we can all see that there are a lot of threats shared between our two democracies."

With its growing military footprint, India is steering away from traditional ally Russia, its main weapons supplier, and looking toward the United States to help upgrade its weapons systems and troop gear, the Post said

India is also pushing the Obama administration to ease the acquisition of US weapons and technology. Already this year, a high-level US government group cleared the way for Lockheed and Boeing to offer India cutting-edge radar technology for fighter jets.

India now has a shopping list that includes 126 fighter jets, 155mm howitzers, long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, vast cargo planes used in long-distance conflicts, high-tech helicopters and deep-water submarines. Boeing is vying with Lockheed-along with French, Russian and Swedish companies and a European consortium-for a fighter jet deal worth about $10 billion.

India is holding flight tests for the fighter jets. Lockheed and Boeing have conducted demonstration flights for Indian celebrities and defence experts.

"America's relationship to India is maturing and expanding. India is an important global player now," the Post said citing William S. Cohen, a defence secretary during the Clinton administration who is a member of the US-India Business Council's board of directors.

Agencies

Would Air India need government bail out package to pay salaries?

For the first time since the losses hit the national carrier Air India, the payment of salaries for the current month of about 30,000 employees will be delayed by a fortnight.

Confirming this, an Air India spokesperson said, "The salaries of June will be paid on July 15 due to the resource crunch that the company is facing."

The payment of productivity-linked incentive (PLI) has also been delayed by 15 days, according to a circular issued by Air India management.

Air India's losses for the last financial year are estimated at around Rs 4,000 crore, up from Rs 2,226 crore in the previous fiscal.

Reports say the national carrier was planning to seek Rs 5,000 crore as additional equity, Rs 7,000 crore as a soft loan payable after five years at a five per cent interest rate, and a grant of Rs 2,000 crore.

However, top Air India officials have denied the figures, but said they are working on similar lines.

Maintaining that the financial crisis was foreseen last year, industry sources said the acute situation could have been avoided had Air India delayed the ongoing deliveries of aircraft, like its competitors Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines did.

They said there is no capacity since air traffic had gone down substantially due to the financial meltdown, and so the induction of additional aircraft could have waited.

Air India has placed orders for 111 new planes worth over Rs 45,000 crore and it currently has a paid-up capital of Rs 145 crore and authorized capital of Rs 1,500 crore package would not match Air India's expectations.

Agencies

Like Boeing, Bombardier to layoff 3,000 jobs

Canadian plane maker Bombardier, which is the third largest aircraft company in the world, on Thursday joined giant Boeing in axing 3,000 jobs worldwide citing sagging demand for its business jets.

Boeing has already announced to lay off 10,000 staff as the global downturn takes toll on the aviation sector.

Surprisingly, job cuts at the Montreal-based Bombardier came the day the company reported higher profits and revenue for the fiscal year 2009. But "there is no doubt that we are going through challenging times and our business environment is changing fast," said Bombardier CEO Pierre Beaudoin in a statement.

"However, we believe we are well positioned to face this difficult economic environment with a strong balance sheet, high level of liquidity as well as a large and diversified backlog, both by product and geographies," he added.

Thursday's job cuts, which account for 10 per cent of the company's total workforce, are in addition to 1,360 jobs it eliminated in February after fall in demand for its Learjet and Challenger aircraft, the Bombardier statement said.

Apart from eliminating hundreds of positions in Canada, the latest job cuts will also affect the company's facilities in the US, Mexico and Northern Ireland, the statement said.

With companies avoiding buying of corporate jets amid the global downturn, Bombardier said it expected to sell 25 per cent less business aircraft in the current fiscal year.

In its annual fiscal report Thursday, Bombardier posted a net income of $1 billion for the fiscal year 2009 ending January 31 - up from $317 million during the previous year.

The company earned a total revenue of $19.7 billion in 2009, compared to $17.5 billion in fiscal year 2008.

However, despite its strong financial showing, the company said its sales were slipping, forcing it to scale back its operations and axe jobs.

Agencies

As airline demand falls Boeing likely to axe 4,500 jobs

Boeing Co., the world's second-largest airplane maker, is planning to cut about 3 percent of its work force as jetliner demand falls, hurt by the global economic downturn.

The Chicago-based company on Friday said it expects to cut about 4,500 positions from its passenger jet business, which has factories in the Seattle area. Many of the cuts will be in areas not directly associated with aircraft production.

The news comes a day after Boeing reported a 15 percent decline in passenger jet deliveries for 2008, when it faced an eight-week strike by union workers and shrinking airline demand. The lower deliveries ensured Boeing's archrival, Europe's Airbus, retained its rank as the world's top plane maker.

Orders for Boeing planes, meanwhile, plunged by more than half last year, following three straight years of exceptionally strong bookings, a grim reminder that carriers have been scaling back spending since the summer to cope with fewer air travelers.

Most of the job cuts announced Friday are expected to occur in Washington state in the second quarter of the year, the company said. Boeing says employees will receive 60-day notices starting in late February.

"We have made significant strides in recent years to achieve greater efficiency and productivity, but we still face challenges that we must address," Scott Carson, president and chief executive of Boeing's commercial airplanes division, said in a statement.

Boeing said the cuts will enable it to continue focusing on development programs, airplane deliveries, productivity improvements and quality, as well as customer support.

The company said this year's cuts will eliminate roughly the number of positions added to its commercial aircraft operation in 2008, lowering the total number to 63,500. Boeing employed a total of 162,191 people as of Dec. 31.

Agencies