Air, Feature, Freight News

ABC opens Heathrow-Moscow link

[ November 2, 2016   //   Chris ]

AirBridgeCargo Airlines is to launch a twice-weekly 747 freighter services between Heathrow and its Moscow hub, from 3 November.

The Thursday and Saturday flights have over 100 tonnes of cargo capacity. And will be the Russian-owned carrier’s 14th European destination. It says the new service is in response to growing market demand for British goods with mainland Europe and South East Asia as well as helping customers around the world export products into the UK.

Connections will be available in Moscow to other destinations on the ABC network.

All-cargo aircraft have become rare birds at Heathrow in recent years, although it remains the UK’s biggest port (air or sea) in terms of the monetary value of the cargo it handles.

The airport’s head of cargo, Nick Platts, said: “Cargo is a little-known but huge part of our operations – in fact, Heathrow is responsible for 29% of all UK non- EU exports, virtually all of which goes in the belly-holds of passenger aircraft, making us Britain’s largest port. New cargo partners like ABC, along with our plans for expansion at Heathrow, will allow us to increase our cargo capacity and keep the UK open to business around the world.”

The airport says that opening of a third runway, following the Government’s recent green light for the plan, will allow it to open up 40 destinations and almost double cargo capacity. It is also investing £180 million over 15 years to improve its cargo infrastructure and processes, including a specialist pharmaceutical storage area as well as better infrastructure to reduce congestion and average cargo processing times to four hours.

Tags: AirBridgeCarriers, Heathrow