Emirates to take on Qantas in airfreight business with the launch of Courier Express

Emirates is adding Australia to its ‘Courier Express’ service, promising to deliver packages from almost anywhere in the world within days.

Gulf carrier Emirates is moving into the parcel delivery business, bringing its Courier Express to Australia with the promise of the fastest door-to-door delivery time by days.

Launched in the UK in April, the service harnesses Emirates’ massive fleet and broad network to accelerate cross-border deliveries. Currently only 6 per cent of international shoppers are buying from Australia, according to the International Trade Administration, due to fluctuating costs and long timelines along with delivery and logistics’ challenges.

Conversely the inbound small-parcel volume to Australia has increased by 45 per cent over the past two years as a record number of households shop online.

Emirates SkyCargo senior vice-president of product and innovation Dennis Lister said the Australian market was seriously under-served by couriers, which made it an obvious choice for the new venture.

“Since the early test phase of Emirates Courier Express, we knew Australia would be a key market,” Mr Lister said.

“Logistically challenging and historically underserved, business and end-consumers will feel the benefits of our direct connectivity, high frequency flight schedules and flexible scalable solution.”

Initially, Courier Express packages will be carried in the belly of passenger aircraft flying into Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth on 70 flights a week.

Emirates plans to convert some Boeing 777-300ERs into freighters for its new Courier Express business.

But Emirates president Tim Clark said once new 777Xs arrived, they would convert a lot of their 777-300ERS into freighters.

“We will expand our fleet to be able to deal with this on a much bigger scale than we do at the moment,” Sir Tim said in Delhi last month.

“It’s early days, but it’s looking good at the moment and we’ll just have to see how it gets on.”

Australia is only the eighth country to be added to the Courier Express network, with India, the US and China to follow.

Mr Lister said they had already signed a large contract with a major retailer in the UK, which would result in “thousands of deliveries a day”.

“I can’t discuss the name as yet but we will start delivering to Australia within the next two weeks,” he said.

While Emirates will provide the wings for the service, Team Global Express or TGE, has signed on as the airline’s delivery partner in Australia.

The move will pit Emirates against partner Qantas, which has a longstanding airfreight agreement with Australia Post.

Mr Lister said the market was big enough for both. “There’s a big ocean of packages out there and I think offering additional capacity and additional services, it’s all about competition,” he said.

“If you can offer something better to customers, as a business we’re happy to do that.”

Originally published as Emirates to take on Qantas in airfreight business with the launch of Courier Express