Qatar Airways cargo starts dedicated cargo route to Delhi

Qatar Airways Cargo started operating its weekly freighter service to Delhi (India) this week.  The first flight from Doha arrived at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on 4 May.

“India is a highly important market for

Qatar Airways Cargo,” said Qatar Airways Chief Officer Cargo, Mr. Ulrich Ogiermann.  “After the launch of our service to Hyderabad in April, we are delighted to start our scheduled freighter service to Delhi this month.

“Delhi has one of India’s largest and fastest growing retail industries. On top of that, it is an important commercial capital in Asia.”

Delhi International Airport CEO, Mr. I.Prabhakara Rao, said: “At Delhi Airport, we have taken a series of steps to boost cargo traffic, which has resulted in an 11% growth in tonnage and helped us cross the 600,000 tonne mark in 2013-14, but we feel there is still a significant opportunity to grow the cargo business in the coming years. This is why we welcome the arrival of world-class air freight operators like Qatar Airways Cargo, as a key component in our strategy for developing Delhi airport as a major air freight hub in India and beyond.”

Major industrial sectors in Delhi include the health sector, electric and electronic goods, gems and jewelry, textiles and leather, factory machinery, consumer goods, and metallurgy. Pharmaceutical products will also be a major export from Delhi on the Qatar Airways Cargo freighters.

Qatar Airways Cargo will operate the weekly service between Doha and Delhi, using the Airbus A330 freighter, alongside the two daily passenger flights that Qatar Airways already operates.

Qatar Airways Cargo recently strengthened its product portfolio with the launch in January 2014 of two new premium services that optimise the transportation of time and temperature-sensitive goods, including high-value pharmaceutical products and perishables. The new services, QR Pharma and QR Fresh, add to the company’s substantial range of cargo services and further enhance its capacity and flexibility to effectively move sensitive commodities in line with the highest world-class standards.

On 1 December 2013, the first Qatar Airways Cargo shipment was received at the new cargo facility at Hamad International Airport. The enormous, state-of-the-art facility, spanning 55,000 square metres, contains a perishables storage area, amongst other key facilities, such as a live animal centre and dangerous goods area. The new self-contained terminal will handle 1.4 million tonnes of cargo per annum.

source: Qatar Airways