AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC) began its 10th anniversary year with the strongest first quarter in its history, with tonnage up 9 percent to 86,500 tonnes.
ABC said its growth reflects market improvements in Russia, Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. Load factor for Q1 was 71 percent. Freight tonne kilometers (FTKs) in the first three months of 2014 rose by 13 percent.
Continuing its network growth in the first three months of 2014, ABC added Dallas, Leipzig and Malmo, Sweden, as new destinations and increased its frequencies to and from Chicago.
The airline also increased its delivered-as-promised performance to 78 percent.
ABC celebrated the 10th anniversary of its first commercial flight on April 23. Its maiden flight in 2004 was between Moscow’s Domodedovo airport and Beijing.
When Volga-Dnepr Group launched ABC in 2004, it was the first Russian all-cargo scheduled airline. In those early days, the airline operated a single B747-200 and served five destinations.
“Today is a proud milestone for our company and a tribute to all of the members of the ABC team around the world and our parent Volga-Dnepr Group for enabling us to achieve our strategic goals over the first 10 years of our development,” Denis Ilin, executive president of ABC, said. “Most of all, we say thank you to our customers for their support and trust in us. We value long-term partnerships and look forward to achieving further growth together.”
In 2013, AirBridgeCargo Airlines carried 340,000 tonnes and flew 2,609,000 FTKs, achieving an average load factor of 72 percent.