DWC welcomes US Cargo Carrier National Airlines
Dubai, April 5, 2011 – Dubai’s second airport, Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International (DWC) recently welcomed a major addition to its growing list of freight carriers when National Airlines first flight, a B747-400 BCF from Hong Kong, touched down at the airport last week. National Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of National Air Cargo Holdings, becomes the 18th airline operating into Dubai’s second airport.
Andrew Walsh, Vice President, Cargo and Logistics, Dubai Airports, described the launch of National Airlines’ operations at DWC as a significant development in the fledgling airport’s growth story. “It’s a great proposition for both National Airlines, which is major player in the freight business, as well as for DWC, which is still in its early stages but destined to become Dubai’s airport of the future in the coming decade. We welcome National Airlines and are confident the unique advantages that DWC offers will greatly benefit them.”
Jacob Matthew, Managing Director and Board Member of National Air Cargo said “We are extremely pleased to commence our operations from DWC and are very keen and committed towards developing our infrastructure based from DWC. As a first step we have already acquired a warehouse and an open cargo yard in DWC’s Logistic City.”
Founded in 1985 and based in Ypsilanti - MI, USA, National Airlines currently operates scheduled and adhoc charters between US, Europe, Middle East, Far East and Africa. National is a leading transportation provider into Iraq and Afghanistan specializing in moving time sensitive and odd sized cargo. And more recently the U.S. Department of Transportation has granted new international passenger charter authority allowing National to expand its global reach.
"DWC is going to become a very important and strategic hub for our worldwide operations and especially for our operations in the region” Chris Alf, Chairman, National Airlines / National Air Cargo said. "Ours is an ambitious plan, and as part of our plan we have recently acquired three B747- 400 BCFs, five 757s – of which one is dedicated towards corporate passenger charters and the other four are under conversion to operate as ‘combis’. Apart from our own aircraft, we have ongoing ACMI arrangements with many other operators and I can proudly say our advent in to DWC is yet another step in the direction of our ambitions.”