Singapore Airlines Cargo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Singapore Airlines Cargo
IATA -	ICAO SQC	Callsign SINGCARGO
Founded		2001
Hubs		Singapore Changi Airport
Focus cities		Sharjah International Airport Brussels Airport
Alliance		WOW Alliance
Fleet size		14
Destinations		15
Parent company		Singapore Airlines Limited
Headquarters		Singapore
Key people		Chew Choon Seng (CEO)
Website: http://www.siacargo.com/

Singapore Airlines Cargo (SIA Cargo), the fully owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines and incorporated in 1 July 2001, is the world's third biggest cargo airline in terms of international freight tonne kilometres (FTK). It has a network spanning 68 cities in 36 countries, with 8 billion tonne kilometre capacity and modern aircraft.

1 History
2 Destinations
3 Fleet
- 3.1 Features of the Mega Ark
4 External links

[edit] History

Singapore Airlines Cargo was formed in 2001 when the air freight operations of Singapore Airlines was hived off to a separate subsidiary. The airline leased the entire freighter fleet from SIA, as well as taking over management of the cargo holds in all of its passenger aircraft.

A round the world service was introduced in October 31, 2001, flying from Singapore to Hong Kong, Dallas, Chicago, Brussels, Sharjah, and back to Singapore on Wednesdays, and on the Singapore, Hong Kong, Dallas, Chicago, Brussels, Mumbai, Singapore route on Fridays.

In March 2004, a weekly New York City-Brussels-Kuwait-Colombo-Singapore routing was introduced.

The airline is in the WOW Alliance, the other members of which are Lufthansa Cargo, SAS Cargo Group, and JAL Cargo.

SIA Cargo also owns a 25% stake in the new cargo airline, Great Wall Airlines, based in Shanghai. The new carrier has also leased 2 Boeing 747-412F from SIA Cargo to operate its first route from Shanghai's Pudong Airport to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

[edit] Destinations

Main article: Singapore Airlines Cargo destinations

[edit] Fleet

[[Boeing_747-400_Singapore_Airlines_LHR.jpg|thumb|Singapore Airlines Cargo Boeing 747 on approach to London Heathrow Airport.]]

Loading a Singapore Airlines Cargo Boeing 747 from the front at Copenhagen Airport.

When incorporated in 2001, nine of Singapore Airlines' Boeing 747 MegaArk freighters were transferred to the new cargo startup at market value, and henceforth, all new freighter purchases were to be made from the new company's books. All cargo hold spaces in the passenger planes are to be managed by the new company as well, following an agreement with the parent company.

SIA Cargo operates 14 Boeing 747-400 MegaArk freighters, with a further aircraft on order (at March 2005). The Boeing 747-400 MegaArk freighter, with a 110 tonne payload and 8,245 km range can carry more payloads further than any other commercial cargo aircraft. The average age of the fleet was 5 years 8 months as at 31 March 2006 (source: SIA Annual Report 2005/6).

[edit] Features of the Mega Ark

Front loading capacity - Cargo can be loaded from the nose, which means the ability to accept big, odd-sized items. MegaArk can carry 20 or 40 foot intermodal containers; and with the large nose door, sea-air transfers can be handled with ease and maximum efficiency.
Additional air conditioning equipment - The equipment can regulate the temperature in the main deck compartment to between 4 and 28 degree Celsius
Special cabin pressure system that can maintain conditions at 8,000 feet altitude.