Emirates SkyCargo honoured at the Cargo Airline of the Year Awards

The carrier picked up three awards, winning the best cargo airline to the Middle East, Far East and Australia.

Ram Menen, Emirates' Divisional Senior Vice President Cargo, said: "Emirates SkyCargo is honoured to receive this recognition, which underlines that whilst we are growing rapidly on the global stage we will always maintain our commitment to customer service and quality. These awards are powerful recognition of that fact."

The awards are a second-time victory for SkyCargo this year, which in early April were also named top carrier on the German market in the Aircargo Performance Study. Emirates SkyCargo has received these awards at a time of significant growth, highlighted by the inauguration of nine new destinations worldwide in 2006.

This route development kicked off with the launch of a dedicated freighter service to Malawi in January, along with subsequent service launches to Abidjan, Trivandrum, Hamburg, Calcutta and Addis Ababa in the first quarter of the year. Routes to Nagoya, Beijing and Bangalore are due to start in June, September, and October respectively as the carrier bolsters its route network to the north, east, south and west of Dubai - itself a perfectly located point in the centre of the commercial world for end-point and transit shipments.

The carrier has also strengthened its freighter services over the past year with the arrival of three A310-300Fs to augment a fleet of six Boeing 747Fs.

Earlier this month, Emirates SkyCargo commenced freighter services from Dubai to existing city destinations of Vienna, Zurich and Rome. In November last year it introduced added extra freighter services to Bangalore, Delhi, Islamabad and Lahore.

Emirates SkyCargo currently serves a global route network that spans 83 destinations in 57 countries.

The awards are organised by UK-based trade magazine Air Cargo News, and attract votes from readers across the world.