While the weekly Prague-Dubai-Hong Kong round-trip routing is being operated by an Emirates SkyCargo B747-200F, Czech Airlines Cargo (CSA Cargo) is responsible for filling more than a half of the freighter’s capacity.
“Interesting opportunities are opening up for us with this product; we will off er new destinations in Asia and our income from cargo carriage will increase significantly,” said Czech Airlines’ Vice- President for Sales, Petr Rehák.
“In 2007, we carried 25,500 tonnes of cargo, which constitutes a 3 per cent increase compared to 2006,” he said.
Emirates happy with alliance
“We are delighted to code-share with Czech Airlines and off er our customers in the Czech Republic direct freighter connections to the two strategically important cities of Dubai and Hong Kong,” said Emirates’ senior vice president cargo, Hiran Perera.
“Czech traders can rest assured that their exports and imports will now quickly and conveniently connect with our vast network in East Asia, Australasia, the Indian subcontinent, Middle East and Africa,” he added.
Besides offering this cargo carriage option to its traditional business partners, Czech Airlines expects to tap the growing number of Asian companies that are seeking to do business with Eastern Europe.
Besides its Asian service, Czech Airlines presently provides cargo carriage of its passenger aircraft belly holds, as well as trucks. Czech Airlines’ new cooperation with Emirates SkyCargo will represent an annual volume of 6,000 tonnes for the airline, increasing Czech Airlines’ overall cargo carriage by one-quarter.
New routes opening up
In addition, Czech Airlines is planning to launch six new scheduled passenger routes this year. The first new route, between Prague and Strasbourg will be introduced in March this year. This will be followed by direct flights to Damascus (Syria), Heraklion (Crete), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Rostov-on-Don (Russia) and Tbilisi (Georgia).
Recently, Czech Airlines, together with 30 other domestic and international operators, obtained licences from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority to operate in Kenya. But the recent outbreak of violence which caused disruptions to flights means that the licensees are unlikely to begin operations in the first half of this year.