Amsterdam Schiphol Airport will be at the heart of AirBridgeCargo Airlines’ (ABC) development strategy as it plans to build on a record year in 2008, according to the Russian cargo carrier. ABC currently operates seven
Boeing 747 all-cargo flights a week from Amsterdam to Moscow and onto China (Beijing and Shanghai) and Hong Kong. Robert Song, Global Commercial Director for ABC, said: “Amsterdam is one of our main gateways in Europe and we are experiencing strong growth there. We are still a relatively new airline but we have worked hard to achieve service reliability and to meet the demands of the scheduled cargo market. ABC is gaining strong support from the forwarding industry in the Netherlands for both our services to Russia and Asia and we value the partnerships we have established.
In the last six months, AirBridgeCargo has added three new B747-400ERF’s to its fleet which have been flying almost daily to Moscow. The airline has also placed an order with Boeing for five next generation B747-800 aircraft with deliveries starting in 2010. It also has options for five more. This fleet expansion will support ABC’s objective of introducing daily B747 services from Schiphol to Moscow, the group said.
Tatyana Arslanova, Senior VP for commercial & strategy, added: “As well as having the right fleet to cope with today’s increasing costs, it is also very important to have the right attitude and foresight to cope with tomorrow’s challenges to help us grow our fleet, network and products to benefit our customers further.”