AirBridge increases capacity to energy-rich Sakhalin Island

AirBridge increases capacity to energy-rich Sakhalin Island    AirBridge Cargo, part of Russia’s Volga-Dnepr Group, has added a second weekly Ilyushin 76TD-90VD freighter operation to connect with its international services to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, located in Sakhalin Island, via one of its Russian hubs in Krasnoyarsk.
   An estimated 45 billion barrels of oil equivalent lie off Sakhalin’s shores, equal to the remaining reserves in the United States or Europe, AirBridge said.
   At the same time, the airline has opened an office on the island and appointed Stanislav Gaponenko and Alexander Vorontsov responsible for sales and customer service respectively.
   In March 2005, AirBridge launched a weekly service to Sakhalin from Frankfurt and Amsterdam using Boeing 747 freighter services that connect with the dedicated IL-76 freighter operation at Krasnoyarsk.
   “Our weekly service has been very successful over the last year and it has always been our intention to increase the frequency of services to keep pace with demand from our freight forwarding partners and oil and gas customers,” said Alexander Mazilin, AirBridge’s regional director in Krasnoyarsk.
   “We have demonstrated our commitment to Sakhalin and provided regular and reliable scheduled services. This has established ABC with its customers as a proven carrier of equipment and supplies to and from the island. We will continue to add capacity as it is required.”
   Import cargo for Sakhalin originates in Europe, the United States and Asia. In addition to its own scheduled services linking Europe, Russia and Asia, AirBridge has interline agreements with Air Canada, Continental Airlines, Nippon Cargo Airlines and Qantas for freight channels into Sakhalin through their connections with AirBridge flights.