The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!

The scheduled cargo airline of the Volga-Dnepr Group, Russia's AirBridge Cargo (ABC, AirBridge Cargo) has joined Cargo 2000. The airline began operations in 2004 and carried 80,000 metric tons of cargo last year, with sales revenues topping $230 million.

"Since we're still a young airline, we don't need to replace old, legacy quality systems," says Stan Wraight, who's in charge of scheduled cargo operations of the Volga-Dnepr Group. "It's always been our intention to join Cargo 2000 once we had the management team and processes in place to support the implementation of Cargo 2000's quality system."

For its part, Ron Cesana, Cargo 2000 project director, says, "We are delighted to be extending the reach of Cargo 2000 to the Russian air cargo market, which we see becoming of even greater importance in terms of world trade in the years ahead."

Currently operating 10 flights a week from Frankfurt and four from Amsterdam, ABC also has weekly service to Shanghai and Beijing, as well as Nagoya and Hong Kong. Wraight expects to see the airline's fleet double in size over the next two years, when it will receive three new Boeing 747-400 Freighters. The airline expects to launch service to North America late this year, using the trans-polar route to serve Toronto and Houston

An AirBridge Cargo Boeing 747 freighter.