Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - Abu Dhabi Airports Company today announced the recent arrival of Cargoitalia, the privately-owned Italian freighter airline, making it the 38th international airline to operate a service out of Abu Dhabi.

Cargo Italia Aircraft

Operating out of its home-base of Milan Malpensa Airport, Cargoitalia will operate a twice weekly service between the Italy's financial and fashion capital to the capital of the UAE.

Abu Dhabi offers a key strategic hub for the expansion of the Italian cargo airline's network across the Middle East and alternatively offers benefits to many businesses looking for increased access and frequency into the heart of Europe and beyond.

Operating out of its home-base in Milan, the freighter's network boasts destinations across the United States, including New York, Chicago and Houston; Central America including Mexico City; and will now be able to develop its network across the Middle East, India and East Africa, through Abu Dhabi International Airport.

By its arrival, Cargoitalia becomes the 38th international airline to operate out of Abu Dhabi International Airport, reflecting both the attraction of the airport to airlines and the ambition for growth that Abu Dhabi Airports Company has towards developing best-in-class operations that meet the current and future needs of the Emirate's aviation infrastructure.

Cargoitalia will see greater load capacities between these two destinations as a result of the deployment of its 70 ton capacity, DC10Fs which will be used on this route.

Mohammed Al Bulooki, Director of Marketing and Communications, Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC), said: "We would like to welcome Cargoitalia to Abu Dhabi and hope that the route will be a mutually beneficial one for the airline and its customers."

Talking of further opportunities through 2008 he added: "We are pushing forward on an agenda that creates greater connectivity and services for our customers to, through and from Abu Dhabi's Airports. This is will be demonstrated both through the development of our facilities on the ground as well as a commitment to grow the number of airlines operating through our airports," added Al Bulooki.

Traffic figures for the first quarter of 2008, recently released by ADAC, saw solid results from its cargo operations posting a 14 per cent increase or 81,651 tons handled in the year's first three months.

Year-on-year performance for March was maintained at a steady nine per cent. There was also a solid year-on-year performance from cargo in February 2008, which posted a 20.1 percent increase, up to 27,341 tons from 22,773 tons on the previous year's figures.