AirBridgeCargo expects new 747Fs to profit from China's 'Go West' policy
2012 04 25
- Details
RUSSIA's AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC) won't make money on the first its two Boeing 747-8 freighters for six months, but hopes to profit from China's "Go West" policy with heavy loads from Chengdu and Chongqing to Europe, says airline president Tatyana Arslanova.
"We're swimming against the stream," Ms Arslanova said during a Frankfurt ceremony to mark the delivery of the second aircraft, also noting a 75 per cent profit decline to US$59.3 million of its parent company Volga-Dnepr Group.
ABC is taking advantage of the "Go West" policy that boosts industrial growth in western China with a focus on IT manufacturing, and has started service to Chengdu three times a week. Chongqing joins the schedule from this summer, taking ABC's mainland China destinations to six from three a year ago.
ABC sales vice president Wolfgang Meier described the move as "part of our strategy to diversify and strengthen to other [European] industrial centres, and we can't rule out others."
An advantage ABC claims over rival operators on the Asia-Europe lane is that it is serving Russian manufacturing centres. It has added new routes to Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk with Khabarovsk in Russia's far east following soon.
Ms Arslanova said the new plane, increasing the ABC fleet to twelve 747 freighters, brought a double-digit improvement in unit costs against its 747-400s. The operating economies they offer meant they would be deployed primarily on the Beijing and Shanghai routes.
Volga-Dnepr Group revenues increased 10 per cent to US$1.74 billion in the first 10 months of 2011 year on year. Cargo volume was up 14 per cent to 372,500 tonnes with ABC contributing 104,960 tonnes as the group increased freight-tonne kilometres eight per cent. Overall ABC achieved a load factor of 71 per cent.
There is some uncertainty as to the exact extra payload the 747-8F can carry, reports Roswell, Georgia's Air Cargo World. Analysts have claimed the aircraft ended up eight to 10 tonnes heavier than first expected, limiting payload and range. But Boeing 747 programme manager Elizabeth Lund says a redesigned wing more than compensates for this.
The plane is 5.6 metres longer than its predecessor, giving four additional main-deck and three more lower-hold pallets; this translates to a 16 per cent higher revenue cargo volume with Boeing promising a 140-tonne payload. A senior ABC executive at the Frankfurt delivery ceremony, said the carrier had already flown 135 tonnes and hoped improvements would increase it to 145 tonnes.
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