L4 Logistics | Transport Shipping and Logistics News

The aircraft will commence services with its first flight from Beijing to Krasnoyarsk, then on to Europe. The addition of the airline’s third B747F comes at an opportune time as recently concluded negotiations between Russian and Chinese authorities have resulted in AirBridge securing additional traffic rights to China. This will enable ABC to further increase frequencies to Shanghai and Beijing and to open services to new destinations such as Guangzhou and Nanjing. Stan Wraight, vice president of Volga-Dnepr Group, said: “Today’s market for airplanes, particularly in the large capacity variant, is very tight. The opportunity to secure this aircraft gives AirBridge Cargo tremendous potential to increase frequencies in line with our customers’ demands. It will also allow greater scheduling flexibility to stabilise our flight network and reliability. It does not stop here though, and negotiations are underway to add the fourth aircraft as early as January 2006.” AirBridge Cargo was launched by Volga-Dnepr Group, and currently operates six flights a week to Shanghai and two flights per week to Beijing from Amsterdam and Frankfurt via its Russian hubs in Moscow (Sheremetyevo) and Krasnoyarsk. In June, Volga-Dnepr Group announced a financial agreement with Ilyushin Finance Corporation to take delivery of two IL-96 freighters to enter service with AirBridge Cargo in 2006 and 2007. Volga-Dnepr is the launch customer for the 92 tonnes capacity IL-96-400T cargo aircraft, which will be used to support ABC’s growing B747 network. (source: press)