Etihad Cargo, the freight division of Etihad Airways, has started three new freighter services from Europe.

Last month Etihad Cargo started operating Boeing 777 freighters from East Midlands and Stansted airports in the United Kingdom and from Copenhagen in Denmark.

“We have responded to our customers’ demand for freighter capacity out of Europe, and our freighter fleet gives us the flexibility of deploying capacity when and where it is required,” said David Kerr, senior vice president of Etihad Cargo. “These three new services will connect producers with consumers halfway around the world. Manufacturers in the UK and Denmark can now get their merchandise to their customers in the Middle East even faster, in as little as 24 hours in some cases.”

“We are very pleased that Etihad Cargo has set up operations at Copenhagen Airport,” said Peter Krogsgaard, chief operations officer of Copenhagen Airport. “Air cargo is of major importance to the Danish business sector. In value terms, more than one-third of Danish exports leave the country by air. Copenhagen is a strong Northern Europe hub for air cargo, and a fast growing international player such as Etihad Cargo will further strengthen our position in the market.”

The new routes bring the number of freighter destinations in Europe to nine. Etihad Cargo already operates maindeck capacity from Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Milan, Brussels, and Zaragoza, as well as belly capacity on its passenger flights from the continent.

Earlier this year, Etihad Cargo expanded its Middle East network to Kuwait by adding an additional freighter and introduced a new twice weekly service into Muscat in Oman.

According to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, the EU is one of the UAE’s biggest trading partners, with non-oil trade between the two totalling $65 billion in 2015. In the same year the UAE was the eighth largest destination of European exports and the EU’s 13th largest trading partner overall.