Leather, silk, garments, tools, flowers, fruit, fish, plants and telecoms equipment were among the cargo being loaded aboard Emirates’ first passenger flight from Dubai to Amsterdam earlier this month.

Reflecting the broad mix of nationalities onboard the Boeing 777-200LR serving the daily Dubai- Amsterdam route is a similar international representation in the cargo hold with commodities from around the Indian sub-continent, Africa, the Far East and Australasia, the carrier said. Emirates SkyCargo has been serving Amsterdam with freighters for more than 15 years from Dubai.

“This flight’s cargo manifest is from all over the place: Lahore, Kolkata, Colombo (seven tonnes of plants no less), Cape Town, Johannesburg, Dubai, Bengaluru, Hong Kong, Melbourne,” said Ram Menen, divisional senior VP Cargo. “While we’re used to seeing such a wealth of commodities on our flights, it’s great to see such variety in the belly hold of an inaugural. This daily passenger service will also provide an extra outlet for goods being moved from our particularly busy African markets of Kenya and Ethiopia.”

Prague is the next new route to be launched by the carrier on 1 July, followed by Madrid on 1 August and Dakar, Senegal a month later, all served from the carrier’s Dubai hub.