As we reported earlier, in March SkyUp Airlines began to develop a new business direction – cargo transportation. To do this, the carrier received all the necessary licenses, as well as reconfigured the aircraft of its passenger fleet. At the beginning of April, the first three aircraft’s seats were partially dismantled, on April 13 the number of reconfigured aircraft was seven, and since May 13, nine aircraft of the company's fleet have been operating cargo flights.
In April and May, the airline transported a total of 1,096 tons of cargo*. The main cities of departure were the cities of China, and the main transit points were the airports of Almaty and Boryspil.
Results of work in April 2020
In April, the airline transported 280 tons of cargo from 20 different cities around the world, performing a total of 43 flights.
TOP-3 cities by weight of shipment:
Guangzhou – 71 tons (6 flights)
Xiamen – 56 tons (6 flights)
Beijing – 37 tons (3 flights)
Compared to Chinese cities, European destinations showed lower figures – about 20 tons in total came from Geneva, Vienna and Yerevan..
- Silk Way West Airlines
- Turkish Airlines
- European Air Transport Leipzig GmbH
- SkyUp Airlines
- Israir Airlines
Results of work in May 2020
In May, the airline tripled its cargo transportation volume, carrying 816 tons of cargo on a total of 68 flights.
TOP-3 cities by weight of shipment:
Zhengzhou – 261 tons (20 flights)
Hangzhou – 150 tons (10 flights)
Beijing – 118 tons (7 flights)
In April and May 2020, SkyUp Airlines carried a total of 1,096 tons of cargo on 111 flights. It was mainly medical cargo from China for customers from Ukraine and European countries.
Plans for the development of the direction
The airline was preparing to perform cargo transportation even before the introduction of quarantine restrictions, and the ban on passenger flights only accelerated this process. We have received the goods transport permit and the license for the carriage of dangerous goods, as well as the permission to reconfigure passenger aircraft in accordance with the recommendations and instructions of the manufacturer and the competent authorities.
At the time of the biggest load, the number of reconfigured aircraft reached 9. As of today, 5 of them have returned to the "passenger" configuration, several more will be converted to their original form after the complete lifting of the passenger air travel restrictions. However, the airline does not plan to abandon freight transportat as one of its activities.
*here and further in the text the data are given according to the airline’s statistics
**according to Boryspil airport