Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is the 12th busiest cargo airport in the world, handling 1.9 million tonnes of cargo last year. Dubai International Airport (DXB) finished one place behind LAX in the rankings at 13th, with 1.7 million tonnes.
Initially operating three times a week, Emirates will fly a Boeing 777-200LR on the route, offering up to 10 tonnes of cargo capacity in each direction.
The new service will be welcomed by American fruit and vegetable exporters whose produce is expected to account for the majority of the cargo tonnage on the US outbound flight, along with US Postal Service mail.
Inbound to the US’ second largest city, the main cargoes will be textiles from the Indian subcontinent, courier mail and, of course, equipment for the Hollywood fi lm industry.
“Emirates SkyCargo is committed to the US, which has proved a very successful market for us,” said Emirates divisional senior vice-president cargo Ram Menen. In June this year we doubled our weekly capacity to Toledo, and upped our Houston flights in February from three times a week to daily.”
Los Angeles, the manufacturing capital of the US, is the third US destination to which Emirates SkyCargo has launched services since June 2007 when it commenced a B747 freighter service to Toledo, Ohio.
It expanded its American network, commencing flights to Houston in December, while in just seven weeks from now, the carrier will launch services to the northern Californian city of San Francisco. Emirates started flying to New York, its first non-stop service to the Americas, in 2004.
