The agreement with Continental Airlines supports the ambitions of both airlines. The US airline has stated its plans to enter the Russian market while AirBridge expects the Houston-based airline to provide an important link into its network, notably for the movement of oil and gas equipment from Texas to Sakhalin island off the coast of Russia.

ABC operates two IL-76 freighters a week from its hub in Krasnoyarsk to serve Sakhalin’s booming oil and gas industry and has now opened its own office on the island to manage its services and future development.

To increase its sales presence, ABC, which also has an interline agreement with EL AL Cargo in New York on the North Atlantic sector to Europe, has appointed Platinum Air Cargo has its general sales agent in Houston, Dallas and Washington while Heavy-weight Air Express will represent AirBridge in New York and Chicago.

“It is no secret that AirBridge Cargo plans to commence operations to the United States. This is one of the reasons why we have two new Boeing 747-400ER Freighters on order with the first delivery scheduled for 2007. Our interline agreement with EL AL Cargo is already proving very successful and I am confident Continental Airlines will be an excellent partner for us in Houston.

“Both of these interline agreements will continue beyond the introduction of our own services to North America as we consider them to be very complementary to our mutual goals. The appointment of GSAs is another essential step in building AirBridge Cargo’s presence in the United States and will help to improve communication and customer satisfaction straight away through our interline partners and, importantly, for our own flights when they begin next year,” said Stan Wraight, Vice President of Volga-Dnepr Group responsible for schedule cargo operations.