ABC attributes its growth to the successful realization of fleet expansion strategy, development of special cargoes solutions and the introduction of new destinations.
The Company pumped up the volume of its cargo carried, which was facilitated by increasing bi-directional trade flows on Europe-Asia lane, where exports from Europe to Asia were nearing the level of volumes from Asia to Europe, with 19% and 12% respectively. The freight corridors, which demonstrated significant growth rates for this period were South-East Asia-North America, South-East Asia-Europe, Europe-Japan&Korea and Europe-North America, which saw 53%, 52%, 49% and 23% upsurge respectively, not only for general cargo, but for special commodities as well. Some lanes stood out in terms of special cargo transportation demand, specifically the main pushers from Europe to North America were automotive spare parts and aerospace equipment from South East Asia to North America.
Apart from market recovery and economic upturn, a major part of ABC’s growth is down to refinement of its sales structure. During the year ABC continued development of its centralized sales structure complimented by regional expertise, instead of relying on GSA network in the regions of ABC footprint and transforming it into a competitive advantage of being 24/7 available and ready to cater customers’ needs.
The company has reaped the rewards of its focus product development strategy, which has been at the forefront of ABC’s operations for the last year, and witnessed increase of special cargoes volumes, with temperature pharma heading the list (+153%), off-size&heavy (+32%), e-commerce (+22%) and dangerous goods (+10%). Throughout the whole year, the carrier has been developing product structures within the company with dedicated and qualified staff at all levels - Sales, Customer Service, Operations, and Procurement - which has helped to reinforce the handling procedures and control processes required during all stages of transportation. Being pure freight carrier, ABC has a number of advantages for transportation of special cargo, taking onboard goods, restricted by passenger carriers, among them being out-of-gauge and dangerous goods.
‘We have approached peak season and Q4 well prepared in terms of fleet availability with recently deployed brand new Boeing 747-8F, which offers enough capacity to accommodate additional volumes. Our well-balanced network and newly integrated destinations provide extensive transportation linkages and cater to the needs of our customers worldwide, with connectivity options through the hub in Moscow Sheremetyevo airport. Throughout 2017 we have been engaged in a constant dialogue with our customers, bolstering our product development in line with ABC network expansion, whilst improving quality of services and optimizing costs. We strongly believe that these efforts will facilitate ABC navigation through peak season and give a bright outlook on annual results’ – highlighted Sergey Lazarev, General Director for AirBridgeCargo Airlines.
