As part of the Forum, held from 5 to 9 December 2012 in St. Petersburg, AirBridgeCargo Airlines made a report on the current issues in development of cross-polar air routes as well as shared its experience in operating regular flights across the North Pole. The report was presented by one of the most experienced airline’s pilots Captain Oleg Trotsenko, who stood at the origins of regular flights development across the Arctic in 1997.

This year AirBridgeCargo Airlines the first among Russian airlines launched a regular cross-polar cargo route from Hong Kong (China) to Chicago (USA) with stopover in Krasnoyarsk. The airline operates cross-polar routes on Boeing 747-8F, the new generation freighter. This route allows not only to significantly reduce the flight time and operational costs, but also gives access to the world’s largest transit cargo market between Asia and the U.S., where Russian airlines still were not present.

“Flights over the North Pole differ from the usual ones due to the lack of wind, errors in satellite navigation systems, high-level radiation and breaks in radio communication; all this requires highly trained flight crew. It is the high level of professionalism of our pilots which allowed us to launch the cross-polar flight from Hong Kong to Chicago via Kranoyarsk on a regular basis”, - says Trotsenko.

“Flight safety especially in terms of health risks is a key goal and value of our airline”, - says Vladimir Vlasov, airline’s doctor. “AirBridgeCargo carried our several studies on subject of radiation levels before launching regular service and implemented a system of continuous monitoring. The studies show that the average level of radiation received by the crew per flight, is 0.018 m3v, which is within the norm (5 m3v year). During a severe solar activity the flights are either canceled or performed on another cross-polar route".

We hope that the practical experience of operating cross-polar flights on a regular basis, which AirBridgeCargo shared with Forum participants, will contribute to the development of the Arctic zone of Russia.