Qatar Airways Cargo, together with Miami Airport International (MIA), celebrated the commencement of its scheduled Boeing 777 freighter service with a reception at Miami cargo terminal recently.
The twice weekly freighter service that first commenced on 2 February 2017, departs from Doha via Luxembourg, the cargo carrier’s European hub and stops at Sao Paulo in Brazil, Buenos Aires in Argentina and Quito in Ecuador before arriving in Miami, Florida. On the return trip, the freighter stops at Liege before arriving back at the airline’s hub in Doha, the State of Qatar.
“Our recent launch of a freighter service to these new destinations across the Americas is another successful start-up for Qatar Airways Cargo and we are grateful to the local authorities and customers for their immense support.” said Ulrich Ogiermann, Qatar Airways chief officer cargo. “We strive to connect these burgeoning import and export markets in the Americas with the rest of the world. Miami, in particular, is an important distribution hub for our air freight moving to and from the Latin American and Caribbean regions, given that Florida is an exporting powerhouse equipped with robust trade and supply chain infrastructure.”
Qatar Airways Cargo’s arrival into these new destinations marks the start of the much awaited scheduled freighter services in South America as well as Miami, Florida, which has been very well received among the carrier’s business partners and customers.
“We proudly welcome Qatar Airways Cargo’s new freighter service to Miami-Dade County,” said Miami-Dade county mayor Carlos A. Gimenez. “Our community already benefits from the daily world-class passenger service Qatar Airways provides to Doha and we look forward to the additional impact its cargo service will have on our local economy.”
The addition of these four destinations brings the cargo carrier’s freighter network in the Americas to 12 while increasing belly-hold cargo services on passenger aircraft to 13 cities across the continent. The cargo carrier anticipates a huge boost to the growing perishables and pharmaceutical exports out of these key markets, therefore the additional 200 tonnes of weekly cargo capacity will supplement the belly-hold cargo capacity on Qatar Airways daily flights to Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Miami.
Through specialised solutions, QR Pharma for pharmaceuticals and QR Fresh for perishables, Qatar Airways Cargo offers customers a seamless and an unbroken cool chain for their temperature-sensitive products via the state-of-the-art and fully automated hub in Doha. Its facility at Hamad International Airport is fully compliant with both, IATA Chapter 17 standards and Good Distribution Practice (GDP). Pharmaceutical and perishable shipments are stored in segregated areas, transported and handled under strictly monitored conditions as required by product specification and are handled in a climate-controlled environment during every stage, including ramp transportation, warehouse storage and aircraft-to-aircraft transfers.
As an industry leader, the cargo carrier ensures the fastest transfer at Doha through its unique Quick Ramp Transfer (QRT). It is the only cargo carrier in the Middle East to offer refrigerated or ‘reefer’ truck services for ramp transfers at its hub. Temperature-sensitive commodities are delivered to and from the aircraft by reefer trucks to ensure the cool chain process is seamless, thereby completely eliminating temperature exposure. The cargo carrier has recently added Sao Paulo as its 71st destination to join the QR Pharma network.
