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Business Reporter
The volume of export cargo carried by aviation giant, Emirates Airline’s cargo division SkyCargo from Zimbabwe, nearly doubled to 2 000 tonnes between 2017 and 2019, a senior official said.

Figures released by the global airline show that Emirates’ cargo division transported 2 009 tonnes of goods from Zimbabwe from 2018 to 2019 compared to just over 1 200 tonnes between 2017 and2018.

Emirates SkyCargo manager Emmanuel Museniwa said some of the goods transported were agricultural produce.

“Carrying more than 2 000 tonnes of export cargo is an important milestone for us in Zimbabwe, and we are delighted that business in Zimbabwe has chosen Emirates SkyCargo as its partner to transport that important freight, benefiting from our ‘Emirates Fresh’ specialised solutions for transporting temperature-sensitive, perishable goods such as vegetables, fruit and flowers,” he said.

In the same period, the US$30 billion revenue airline, which is in the top 10 biggest airlines in the world, also recorded an increase in imports it transported to Zimbabwe on its Harare-Lusaka-Dubai route.

With regards to imports, Emirates SkyCargo carried 2 482 tonnes, being general goods including pharmaceuticals while in terms of passengers the airline airlifted 155 023 passengers.

Emirates country manager Nasser Bahlooq said Dubai was the top destination for travellers from Zimbabwe, followed by London, Beijing, New York and Washington DC. In-bound travellers to Harare were mostly from Dubai, London, Beijing, Birmingham and New York.

“Emirates connects people and places around the globe, offering them excellent service and value for money. Almost eight years ago we brought our service to Harare, contributing to Zimbabwe’s economy through tourist arrivals, foreign exchange earnings, employment generation, horticultural exports and business and investment connections, and we still remain committed to Zimbabwe,” he said.

Emirates launched its flight services from Harare in 2012 and operates state-of-the-art Boeing 777 and 300ER aircraft on the route, each of which can carry 360 passengers and 25 tonnes of cargo, respectively.

Globally, Emirates carried over 59 million passengers on its 3 700 weekly passenger flights in 2018. The airline served more than 66 million meals on its flights from Dubai to its global network of 159 destinations.  Emirates operated over 192 000 flights with its fleet of 274 aircraft last year.