ABC adds frequencies through Moscow hub

Building on strong growth through the first nine months of 2014, AirBridgeCargo Airlines is adding frequencies linking its Moscow hub with major cities in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Through the first nine months of 2014, ABC saw an increase in tonnage carried on all of its routes in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, with flown tonnage to/from the U.S., Asia and Europe growing by 28 percent, 14 percent and 13 percent, respectively.
The continued strong results build on comments Denis Ilin, AirBridgeCargo’s executive president, made to Air Cargo World earlier this year. Rapid growth in U.S. markets has been a pleasant surprise for the carrier this year.
“We have a very young fleet with capabilities to fly any type of cargo,” Ilin said. “Our basic approach is paying back at the moment. People, especially in the U.S. market, treat us as a premium carrier and quite often they are happy to pay a premium for that service. “We are trying to be very serious by using new equipment, having on-time and safe and secure delivery.”
ABC launched extra weekly frequencies to/from Munich, Milan and Amsterdam. In Asia, AirBridgeCargo has also increased flights to/from Hong Kong and Shanghai with an extra service per week on both routes. ABC has also extended its capacity for customers in North America with two additional flights a week to Chicago and one to Dallas/Fort Worth.
“Another interesting thing that makes our business model more sustainable is that by creating a network via Moscow, it allows us to combine on the same plane traffic from three major routes—Asia to Europe, Asia to North America and Asia to Russia,” Ilin said. “It helps us balance capacity.”