ABC celebrates with improved results
03 / 03 / 2015
AIRBRIDGECARGO Airlines (ABC), Russia’s largest freighter airline has commenced its 10th anniversary year with the strongest first-quarter in its history, with volume up nine per cent to 86,500 tonnes.
ABC says the improvement reflects market advances in Russia, Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific as well as the success of its own sales activities.
Freight ton-kilometres in the first three months of 2014 rose by 13 per cent, far exceeding the industry average of four per cent growth in the period.
Load factor for the quarter was 71 per cent, again considerably higher than the industry average, says ABC.
In the first three months of 2014, ABC added Dallas, Leipzig and Malmo as new on-line destinations, and increased its frequencies to and from Chicago.
“The additional operations strengthen ABC’s position in the European and North American air cargo markets. By adding new destinations and improving connectivity with the Moscow hub, we are able to offer an increased choice of routes and connections for international customers,” says a statement.
The airline’s continued focus on improving its performance levels led to further gains in Q1, increasing its Delivered-As-Promised performance to 78%.
The Russian carrier celebrated the 10th anniversary of its first commercial flight on 23 April. Its maiden flight in 2004 was between Moscow’s Domodedovo airport and Beijing.
ABC started as a Volga-Dnepr Group project and over its subsequent 10-year journey has earned its place among the world’s major international cargo airlines.
In 2004 the airline operated a single B747-200 and served five destinations. Now it is proud to operate a fleet of 12 B747 freighters (five B747-8s and seven B747-400s).
In 2013, ABC carried 340,000 tonnes and flew 2.6 million FTKs, achieving an average load factor achieved of 72 per cent.
Denis Ilin, ABC’s executive president, says: “We value long-term partnerships and look forward to achieving further growth together.”
