by Emirates SkyCargo, the cargo arm of the world’s largest international airline, has advanced its digital landscape for cargo operations, with the introduction of eQuote. Empowering customers with real-time data and information for a seamless booking experience, the launch marks a significant milestone on the airline’s long-standing digitisation strategy, which aims to enhance customer experience, streamline operations and drive greater efficiencies.
Available on e-SkyCargo, eQuote acts as a digital ‘self-service’ touchpoint, enabling customers to request and manage their spot quotations, 24/7. The solution will be progressively rolled out globally and will incorporate the majority of products, including highly sensitive shipments such as the Life Sciences and Healthcare portfolio and high-value transfers such as Emirates Wheels. eQuote provides a higher level of choice, control and flexibility for customers to access the airline’s world-class products and services.
Matthew Scott, Vice President of Pricing and Interline, Emirates SkyCargo said, “Accelerating digital transformation is a key pillar of our strategic roadmap, which will ensure we remain one of the leading partners for the world’s rapidly evolving supply chains. Integrating intuitive and reliable digital tools into our customer journey is essential, as more customers become accustomed to a swift and seamless experience, empowered with real-time data to streamline their daily operations. The launch of eQuote is a natural enhancement to our digital offering, further enriching the exceptional customer service that Emirates SkyCargo is renowned for.”
Embracing digital solutions
The cargo division’s digitalisation strategy prioritizes innovation that drives demonstrable results, not just for customers but for internal teams too. Emirates SkyCargo has been steadily and successfully integrating digital solutions into its operations, unlocking incremental value and optimizing processes for a more seamless customer journey. Across its vast global network, Emirates SkyCargo has seen a significant uptick in digital adoption – now accounting for more than 60% of all bookings. General cargo remains the number one commodity booked digitally, closely followed by perishable and pharmaceutical shipments, indicating the maturity of the digital landscape given the complex requirements for temperature-sensitive freight.
Enhancing customer experience
In response to this growing demand, Emirates SkyCargo established its presence on three of the biggest digital marketplaces, along with the leading Transport Management Systems, most frequently used by freight forwarders worldwide: WebCargo, cargo.one, CargoAi and CargoWise. For customers, this means Emirates SkyCargo offers are present wherever the customer wishes to book, offering an array of benefits including direct access to make bookings, visibility on schedules, tariff and contract rates, along with real-time access to available capacity, enabling immediate bookings 24/7.
At launch, Emirates SkyCargo made five core products available on digital marketplaces, allowing for the transport of perishables, general cargo and urgent shipments; this has now been expanded to more specialty products, including pharmaceuticals. The airline also increased the weight break limitation to three tonnes, allowing more shipments to be booked digitally.
Building on the early results of air freight aggregators, Emirates SkyCargo worked with key global customers, Kuehne+Nagel and DB Schenker to initiate direct host-to-host connections, building the airline’s available capacity, schedules and rates into these customers’ internal booking engines.
Emirates SkyCargo has witnessed greater productivity and an increase in manpower efficiency across the board. By reducing the manual work for simple or small shipments, the airline’s team of experts can prioritize more complex bookings that require closer follow up, such as shipments booked through Emirates Valuables or Emirates Pets. Sales agents have more availability to meet with customers and provide a better, more personalised service – further elevating Emirates SkyCargo’s market-leading capabilities and contributing to the strong customer feedback.
Elevating digital touchpoints
Finally, Emirates SkyCargo has completed a full refresh of its owned digital channels, including e-SkyCargo and SkyCargo.com, enriching the existing websites to be more efficient, useful and impactful to customers and stakeholders. e-SkyCargo, the airline’s registered user portal, has been simplified to enhance the user experience with evolved functionality that prioritizes usability.
SkyCargo.com, the airline’s main website, has undergone a full rebrand, with a more intuitive design, improved mobile-friendliness, and enhanced accessibility features to improve navigation. Each specialist product under Emirates SkyCargo’s multi-vertical portfolio is outlined on the website, providing comprehensive information and up-to-date details on packaging requirements, necessary documentation and compliance considerations, to ensure customers can make the right decisions for their business.
A look ahead
Digitisation will remain a key priority for Emirates SkyCargo and the wider air freight industry with innovative solutions that not only integrate into operations but shape them too. By harnessing the collected booking data, Emirates SkyCargo will evaluate micro and macro trends against live data, to better adjust schedules, frequencies, product capabilities, routes and more, to ensure customers worldwide get the goods they need, when they need them.
