The British luxury car maker Jaguar has teamed up with Emirates SkyCargo to offer a bespoke delivery service of the latest incarnations of the famous marque from its UK home to Chicago for testing.
Emirates SkyCargo flight EK9923 this week departed Birmingham Airport on its way to Chicago O’Hare International to deliver the Jaguar Land Rover cars. Metro Shipping, the logistics service provider appointed by Jaguar Land Rover, was on hand to coordinate the shipment.
The freighter service is part of Emirates SkyCargo’s specialised offering, Emirates SkyWheels, for high-value vehicles. Airfreighting the Jags directly from Birmingham, the location of Jaguar Land Rover’s Solihull facility, to Chicago means the vehicles arrive in tip-top condition as there is no need for them to be moved via long-distance trucking.
But it is not just luxury cars that get the VIP treatment, supercars can go First-Class, too. For instance, late last year, SkyWheels transported a US$1 million-plus Pagani Zonda supercar to Bologna in Italy.
The Jaguars were flown aboard an Emirates SkyCargo Boeing 777 Freighter aircraft, which has the capacity to carry more than 100 tonnes of cargo.
“It is a positive development that we are able to work with leading car manufacturers like Jaguar Land Rover on our Emirates SkyWheels offering,” said Hiran Perera, the senior vice president for cargo planning and freighters at Emirates SkyCargo. “We look forward to working with businesses across the Midlands and the UK to help them connect with their international counterparts.”
Paul Kehoe, the chief executive of Birmingham Airports said: “The Midlands is at the heart of UK manufacturing and the top export region outside of London and the south-east, accounting for almost 20 per cent of all English export goods.
“Air connectivity is an absolutely vital ingredient in growing this success and supporting global manufacturing brands such as Jaguar Land Rover, which produces thousands of vehicles each week from the Solihull plant, near the airport site. ”
Lawrence Boyle, the global test facilities team leader at Jaguar Land Rover, said: “This is another milestone for Jaguar Land Rover as it continues to improve productivity, saving significant time and cost in the movement of our vehicles. By working with Emirates SkyCargo and using Birmingham Airport, we have a hub much closer to the centre of our engineering and manufacturing operations. ”
In December, Emirates SkyCargo carried nearly 5,700 tonnes of cargo from the United Kingdom, up 29 per cent on the same period last year, according to Iata. That was the first month Emirates SkyCargo had exported a larger volume of cargo from the UK than any other airline. The total cargo volume flown by the UK arm of Emirates SkyCargo between January 2014 and December 2016 was nearly 190,000 tonnes.
chnelson@thenational.ae
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