AirBridgeCargo sees cargo demand soar 13 percent in 2017

January 24, 2018: AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC) continued its momentum with a 13 percent upsurge in its total cargo carried in 2017, delivering over 700,000 tonnes across its international network, and demonstrated 10 percent growth rates in FTK%u2014one percent up on the overall market rate.

ABC's load factor also rose four percent year-on-year to approximately 71 percent.

The carrier's success is being spearheaded by the effective realisation of its fleet expansion strategy, development of solutions for special cargoes, and introduction of new destinations and the upgrading of existing ones as ABC continues to respond proactively to the capacity and service requirements of its customers worldwide.

With robust and solid air cargo growth, ABC witnessed distinct business improvements in all major markets across its global network. Its performance was also enhanced by the refinement and reinforcement of its sales structure, which has seen the development of a centralised sales structure complemented by regional expertise.

"In 2017, we concentrated our efforts on the development of special cargo transportation, fine-tuning our internal procedures and processes, aligning our organisation structure and going on the path of digitalization, steps which boosted our volumes of special commodities, with temperature pharma heading the list ( 150 percent), followed by off-size and heavy ( 33 percent), and e-commerce ( 26 percent). We have also initiated a number of projects aimed at ameliorating service quality, including introduction of our new control tower to monitor consignments of special cargoes and to proactively respond to service disruptions if any, Envirotainer QEP certification for ABC stations, cooperation with Sky Fresh for automated notifications, and other industry-related initiatives with tech-savvy solutions which helped to sharpen ABC's performance. Our commitment to continuous improvement and strong customer relationships will continue to serve as a pillar for ABC's development in 2018 and beyond," said Sergey Lazarev, general director of AirBridgeCargo Airlines.

In 2018, ABC is expected to beef up its service quality with its main focus on further enhancement of special cargo solutions, not only providing its customers with a wide range of products, but also offering digital solutions to make the process of airfreight delivery as transparent and easy as possible.

Finding new areas for digital penetration to benefit its customers' experience will be the key driver of ABC's development, based on partnership with forward-thinking trustworthy companies, optimisation of internal processes and organisational structure, and customised solutions for certain industries, notably the pharmaceutical, aerospace and oil and gas sectors and others.