EMIRATES Airline will launch six weekly direct services linking Guangzhou and Dubai from next month.

An Airbus330-200 will serve the route and provide an additional 80-plus tons of weekly belly-hold cargo capacity.

"The addition of Guangzhou to our network will offer shippers to and from southern China even better connections to their trading partners around the world," said Ram Menen, Divisional Senior Vice President of Cargo, Emirates Airlines.

Apart from the Guangzhou destination, the carrier has no plans to expand its network in China in the short term as the cargo market was a bit slow, said Menen.

Menan said China's air cargo volume was expected to grow 15 percent annually in the next 20 years, faster than many other areas across the world, despite the global slowdown in air freight volumes.

The Chinese market ranks the first for Emirates' cargo business, and 54 percent of the carrier's business came from Asia Pacific.

Emirates' cargo volume in Shanghai reached 4,000 tons per month and the volume in Beijing totaled 600 to 700 tons.

The airline offers more than 3,000 tons of belly-hold and freighter cargo capacity a week through its double daily services to Beijing and Shanghai and 14 weekly flights to Hong Kong.

It also operates eight dedicated freighter services to Shanghai and 15 to Hong Kong.