Blue skies and new horizons

IFW: Emirates has taken a leading role in offering services across Africa, what’s the thinking behind this move? 

Sedgley: There’s a lot more consumer goods going into Africa, and using Emirates’ network via Dubai with all our connections is the best way to get to that market. Africa is coming alive and we’re ideally situated to call there. Take Luanda in Angola, to where we started a new route in October. It’s oil-based, and after 30 years of civil war it has gone like the Klondike, with hotel rooms costing thousands a night. When you get political stability then you get economic growth. And if you are mineral-rich, like many regions of Africa are, then you can see the momentum. 

IFW: Is this about Africa becoming part of the global economy? 

Sedgley: Africans are now making themselves heard. They are saying they can produce goods for global markets with low carbon emissions. They are communicating on mobile telephones and the internet. All this is lending itself to quite rapid and broad-based development. 

IFW: How important is the uptake of new technology to economic growth and accessing international markets with products? 

Sedgley: If you take China and India as examples, the uptake of modern technology is faster than in the US and Europe. They are not hamstrung by having to overcome legacy issues. They are just going straight to the latest technology. So internet usage, in terms of computer literacy, is far better in China and India than in Europe and the US. E-trading is leap-frogging traditional ways of trading in these areas. 

IFW: Looking at the Emirates network, South America looks like the last frontier. Will we see this change? 

Sedgley: There are lots of opportunities in South America. We fly to Sao Paulo already with a B777, which offers approximately 12 tonnes each way. There was a lot of traffic between Nagoya, in Japan, and Brazil, that was Toyota-related, but obviously, that was affected by the recession in the auto industry and in Japan. However, traffic volumes overall have held up well on the route. 

Freighter services to various destinations throughout South America are under consideration. There’s lots of investment from here in the Middle East into that part of the world. Oil and gas investment is huge, but there’s also venture capital and real estate business flowing from here to South America, and it’s a business that lends itself to air because of the distances. 

IFW: You have more freighter deliveries coming in from 2013 (see box). Will you be looking to expand your cargo reach further into North America? 

Sedgley: Asia-Pacific is the target in the next five years. We’re mainly looking at China and India, where there’s still lots of potential. At the moment, we see freighter operations more for China, with India as more of a passenger market. We don’t need freighters into India, as we have 184 flights a week into 10 destinations. We have good geographic spread and good bellyhold capacity throughout the day. 

IFW: Are you offering ground delivery options in India for cargo as you do in many other markets? 

Sedgley: In certain places we do this for imports, which tend to be industrial or commercial goods and personal effects from ex-pats from the Middle East and Europe. In certain places, we also offer door-to-door and customs clearance, but most of our business is airport-to-airport, and the agents clear the cargo. 

IFW: How do you cope with India’s complex bureaucratic processes? 

Sedgley: If we get a more federal tax system there will be huge improvements in logistics. But at the moment, there is a legacy of regulations that doesn’t help costs, and there’s lots of bureaucracy. 

But the simple facts are that India is increasingly becoming a very modern country, with some 34% of the population now middle-class. That will be 50% in the next five to 10 years and poverty is due to be reduced to 1%. The potential for imports and exports is phenomenal. GDP growth last year was more than 8%, fuelled by domestic consumption, and that tells its own story.