A method, apparatus and system for transmitting multiple I/O requests from an input/output processor (IOP) to an I/O device. The IOP is configured with multiple I/O threads, each having a corresponding active I/O, that allow a queuing thread to coordinate the transfer of multiple I/O requests at a time from the output of the device queue to the active I/Os and their I/O threads. The queuing thread and a promotion algorithm are configured to consider the promotion of one or more I/O requests ahead of other I/O requests in the device queue, based on a set of promotion requirements. After processing by the I/O threads, multiple I/O requests are transferred at a time from the multiple active I/Os to the I/O device. Promotion of I/O requests based on the promotion requirements improves processing efficiency by making better use of the multiple I/O thread processing resources.