Ram Menem, Emirates' divisional vice president of cargo, said: "As one of the largest air cargo carriers in the world, we continue to invest in our fleet and expand our route network, enabling us to provide our customers with even greater flexibility, increased frequencies, additional capacity to handle larger cargo volumes and charter flights. Our dedicated freighter fleet, coupled with our cargo capacity on our passenger fleet of 185 wide-bodied aircraft that flies to 128 destinations in 74 countries, gives us extensive global reach and connectivity to the trade routes to the world." In 2012, Emirates introduced services to Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Dublin, Dallas, Lusaka, Harare, Seattle, Ho Chi Minh City, Barcelona, Lisbon, Washington, Adelaide, Lyon and Phuket. Warsaw will join the route network on Feb. 6, and Algiers in March.

In other action, Amerijet International Inc. announces its first Boeing 767 freighter flights to St. Kitts. Pamela Rollins, Amerijet's senior vice president of business development, said, "This aircraft allows us to increase capacity to and from the market." Ken Pennyfeather, station director added: "This is our first scheduled 767 freighter flight to St. Kitts, it is our goal to have the B767F become part of the weekly scheduled flight rotation, as we continue to explore ways to make St. Kitts a North Caribbean air cargo hub for Amerijet." The airline currently operates Boeing 727-200s out of Miami three times weekly into the St. Kitts & Nevis market.

In addition, Air Transport Services (ATSG) announced that its airline subsidiaries are deploying four additional freighter aircraft to support the U.S. portion of DHL's international network. The addition includes three Boeing 767-200 freighters operated by subsidiary ABX Air under terms of its continuing CMI agreement with DHL, and a Boeing 757-200 freighter operated by subsidiary Air Transport International (ATI) under a multi-year ACMI agreement, bringing ATSG's support of DHL's network to a total of 27 available aircraft. All of the planes are owned by ATSG except for four owned by and leased from DHL. ATSG subsidiary Cargo Aircraft Management (CAM) provides 13 of the 23 under seven-year dry lease to DHL terminating either in 2017 or 2018.

Finally, cargo markets should improve on a weak 2012, if only slightly, according to  Tony Tyler, IATA's director general and CEO. He said, "November brought some positive signs for air transport demand"”particularly for air cargo. It is premature to consider this a turning point for air cargo markets in terms of bouncing back and regaining lost ground. But, when coupled with positive economic developments in the U.S. and an improvement in business confidence in recent months, the conditions are aligning to see a return to growth in 2013. In 2013 we expect that cargo volumes will grow 1.4 percent."

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