Emirates SkyCargo ramps up India freighter capacity

Emirates SkyCargo has continued to increase its freighter capacity to India as it looks to capitalise on growing demand from the country. The carrier has recently added weekly freighter services to Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad in addition to its existing flights to Mumbai and Ahmedabad. In total, the airline now offers seven weekly freighter flights to India as well as 167 weekly passenger flights. Explaining the decision to expand capacity to India, the cargo business pointed out that airfreight is a critical enabler of India's international trade, facilitating the movement of high-value, time-sensitive goods to global markets. The company added that an estimated 2.2m tonnes of international cargo move through Indian airports annually. During financial year 2025/26, Emirates SkyCargo transported more than 153,000 tonnes of exports from India, it said. Major export commodities transported by the carrier include pharmaceuticals, perishables, high-tech electronics, engineering and automotive components, as well as fashion goods. The carrier also pointed out that trade growth between India and the UAE has been on the rise since the two added a trade agreement in 2022. "With non-oil trade between the two economies growing at an annual rate of around 15%, Emirates SkyCargo has been supporting these accelerating trade flows, supporting more than 28,000 tonnes of exports from India to the UAE in FY25/26, a growth of 24% from the previous year," the company said. Badr Abbas, divisional senior vice president, Emirates SkyCargo, said: "With a fast-growing economy, the country is strengthening its position as a hub for manufacturing and production, expanding exports and trade corridors across the world. "We have recently deployed our freighter aircraft to three additional gateways in India to support customers seamlessly transport their goods to global markets." The carrier said that it also has a Road Feeder Network in the country, which over the last 12 months had carried more than 4,500 tonnes of import and export cargo to enable businesses outside of gateway cities to access Emirates SkyCargo's global network. The additional flights are the second time the carrier has expanded its Indian freighter network this year. In March, the carrier added extra flights to Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

ACS Germany brings in Timo Kaden to drive cargo growth

Air Charter Service (ACS) Germany has appointed veteran air cargo executive Timo Kaden as cargo business development director, based at its Frankfurt office. Mr Kaden brings almost three decades of logistics experience to the aircraft charter broker, including nearly 19 years with KN Airlift, where he worked in global full-charter services across sales and operations. He joined KN Airlift in 2007 and became manager of sales and operations for global full-charter services in 2014, a role he held until moving to ACS in June. His earlier career included airfreight roles at Gondrand/Atege, JAS Forwarding, and Schryver Luftfracht. Caroline Werf, CEO of ACS Germany, said Mr Kaden had worked for "some of the biggest names in freight forwarding" and brought a wealth of airfreight contacts, as well as extensive experience on both the operational and sales sides of cargo chartering. ACS has expanded its German presence in recent years and now operates four offices in the country, at Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne, and Stuttgart. Ms Werf said: "Timo's experience will help build and guide our growing team of cargo experts, with his vast knowledge and expertise." Mr Kaden said: "I have worked in the cargo business in Germany for my entire career and am looking forward to starting this new chapter building on business relationships across the country." Check out today's News in Brief podcast on geopolitical tensions, port congestion and shifting freight rates.

Priority airfreight squeezed as UK cargo recovers from NATS failure

UK air cargo operators are working through backlogs, following yesterday's air traffic control failure, with pressure emerging on express and priority capacity as forwarders seek to protect customer delivery commitments. "We will see forwarders fighting for express capacity by upgrading the priority status on general cargo - with them absorbing any express or priority rate to ensure they meet their customer's SLA," a UK forwarder told The Loadstar. Carriers could respond by temporarily restricting acceptance of express bookings or raising priority rates until backlogs had been cleared, the forwarder added. However, the disruption is not expected to have a significant impact on general airfreight rates, while flight data suggests dedicated freighter operations at East Midlands and Stansted proved more resilient than Heathrow's bellyhold network. The disruption followed a technical problem with the NATS flight-processing system yesterday afternoon, which resulted in widespread restrictions on UK flights. NATS announced the problem at 1.46pm and, around three hours later, said it had implemented a fix and its flight system was beginning to recover. More than 1,750 flights were reported cancelled across the UK. The biggest impact on UK air cargo appears to have been at Heathrow, where cancellations of long-haul passenger services removed belly capacity on a number of major cargo routes. And Heathrow suspended arrivals for the remainder of yesterday, although departures resumed later. This morning, the airport said: "Heathrow's operations are recovering. Flights are operating today, however some knock-on disruption is expected as airlines reposition aircraft and crew." Flight data reviewed by The Loadstar confirmed the cancellation of a number of long-haul widebody services from Heathrow, including flights to North America, Asia, and Africa, while other long-haul services suffered significant delays. The UK forwarder said backlogs were inevitable, but carriers had continued accepting cargo despite the disruption, and some had recovered considerably faster than others. Virgin Atlantic Cargo and American Airlines Cargo were singled out as having recovered particularly well. Virgin Atlantic told customers: "While the technical issue affecting the NATS air traffic control system has now been resolved, recovery across the wider aviation industry is ongoing. Virgin Atlantic expects to operate its planned flying programme on Wednesday 9th September, although some shipments will continue to experience disruption as a result of the outage. Customers should check Track and Trace for the latest status update. "We have seen some carriers adopt creative routings to maximise all capacity ex-LHR and utilise alternative airports too." The forwarder added: "There will inevitably be backlogs and delays and each airline is recovering as best they can, in a way operationally suitable to them. "Carriers have continued to accept cargo despite backlogs, which is good." The relatively short duration of the underlying NATS problem should also limit the impact on the wider airfreight market. "NATS rectified the issue fairly quickly in the grand scheme of things, so we will not see any significant rate impact," the forwarder said. The forwarder warned that carriers could temporarily halt acceptance of express bookings or increase priority rates while backlogs were cleared. Meanwhile, flight data indicates that a number of key dedicated freighter services continued to operate despite the disruption. East Midlands Airport initially suspended 19 departures yesterday while awaiting further guidance from NATS, although arrivals remained unaffected at that stage. However, key freighter departures subsequently operated during the evening, including from Maersk Air Cargo and DHL, according to flight data reviewed by The Loadstar. DHL confirmed that its operation had been affected, but indicated that it had maintained services. "While yesterday's disruption had some operational impact, our teams responded quickly and worked throughout the day and night to minimise customer impact and maintain service continuity," a DHL spokesperson told The Loadstar. The movements suggest the UK's freighter gateways proved relatively resilient to the disruption, in contrast to Heathrow, where the cancellation of long-haul passenger flights immediately removed bellyhold capacity. While the full impact on freight volumes remains unclear, the relatively rapid restoration of the NATS system, continued operation of key freighter services, and airlines' efforts to reroute cargo suggest the disruption is likely to result in a short-lived capacity squeeze rather than a wider shock to the UK airfreight market.