dnata furthers Western ambitions with stake in Canadian ground handler

Emirates’ ground-handling subsidiary dnata is on track to buy a 50 percent stake in GTA Aviation’s operations at the Toronto Pearson International Airport, marking the Dubai-based company’s first foray into Canada. The new partnership in cargo and ground handling operations will be rebranded “GTA dnata.”

The deal marks a concerted push into the Western Hemisphere by dnata, which announced investments in the United States and Brazil earlier this year. The ground-handling firm already operates 26 airports in Brazil and 25 airports in the U.S.

GTA currently has 130 employees, serves more than 1,400 flights and handles over 58,000 tonnes of cargo annually. Its customers include Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Cargojet, China Southern Airlines, Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines, Fly Jamaica, Korean Air, SWISS and WestJet.

dnata is owned by the Emirates Group, which started with ground handling and currently bills itself a as an international air services provider, with almost 40,000 employees across more than 80 countries.