RUSSIA: INTERVIEW\\\


Issue 1 2012


23


Shiny new planes but Eurozone woes still remain a worry for ABC


Executive president of AirBridgeCargo Airlines, Tatyana Arslanova talks to Freight Business Journal about the carrier’s plans for 2012 and beyond.


FBJ: Any news in terms of aircraſt fleet, routes to or from Russia, stations served? Any plans yet for how the new 747- 8s will be deployed? TA: At the moment our


fleet consists of 11 Boeing 747 freighters: two 747-200, one 747-300 and eight 747-400Fs. In 2012, aſter a two year delay we are scheduled to take delivery of Boeing 747-8Fs. The decision to order five Boeing 747-8Fs was taken back in 2007. It came within the framework of ABC’s development strategy for fleet renewal and modernisation as well as replacement of older Boeing 747 classics (200/300F) with brand new planes. Basically the new aircraſt will be deployed instead of the classics and we will have the same number of planes operating on existing routes. Coming back to the question


of route network we should point out that 93% of our flights are operated via Russia, and of those 89% through our Moscow hubs in Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo airport and 4% through airports in Siberia and the Far East - for example, Krasnoyarsk orYekaterinburg. How optimistic are you about the Russian economy? To what extent is it an island of prosperity in a troubled world? The Russian economy is constituent


a part of world


economy and is strongly dependent on it. Thus all the processes which take place in the world influence us to some extent, either through capital flow or prices for energy resources and metals. Today energy resources account for 66% of Russia’s exports and we are very much dependent on oil prices which, according to world forecasts, are not likely to decrease (according to US Energy Information Administration). This


will mean stability for


Russia and its economy. On the other hand in the international


commodity area Russia’s biggest country partners are located in Europe and the crisis going on at the moment cannot but influence our country (21% of cargo is imported from the EU as air freight versus 4% of exports to the EU), as well as slowdown of economic growth rates in China which is among our top five partners. Given the above factors our government has recently


Tatyana Arslanova - New planes wil replace the ‘classics’


industrial consumables & foods (48%), chemicals & products (12%), machinery parts, components, supplies & manufactures (9%), capital equipment & machinery (6%) and consumer personal & household goods (5%). Will Russia’s membership of the World Trade Organization make much difference to trade flows? For the aviation industry it will mean a decrease in customs


day on air freight volume and flows. And at the moment we are in limbo and, along with other industry players, can only guess what the outcome might be. There seems to be a certain amount of political instability in Russia lately. Will this have much effect on the airfreight industry? I would try to avoid calling it


instability because the situation is always like this when the country is on the eve of a presidential campaign. Besides we have just had the State Duma elections in which our governing party remained unchanged; for the next five years we will not have major changes in law making, including those related to aviation industry.


Are you affected at all by the Frankfurt night flight ban? (Do people ever talk about night bans in Russian airports?) Frankfurt has always been a


restricted airport and it is not the only one in the world of its kind. However as of the winter schedule (on October 30) they introduced a night ban for Boeing 747-200s on Saturday and Sunday which affected many airlines with AirBridgeCargo being no exception. Two out of our 11 planes are Boeing 747-200 - the type which is not permitted to fly due to noise restrictions. Thus we had to regroup our fleet and reroute it to other destinations in Europe, such as Hann airport. In Russia we do have a similar


situation - examples abound. Vnukovo airport which is only 10km from Moscow has a four hour night curfew. Given the heavy workload of Moscow airports during the night this has a significant effect on the other airports at Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo. Any further thoughts on how you serve the UK – still by truck connections? We have always been


providing trucking service for the UK and for the next year, given that number of planes will be the same and we will concentrate on existing routes, we will continue providing the same type of service from our on-line stations in Amsterdam and Frankfurt.


adjusted its forecast and plan for 2012 budget by lowering GDP to 4% for next year, although we are still positive about the future. What is driving business to and from Russia? Energy, consumer products or other factors? For the first six months of 2011


Russia’s foreign trade consisted of US$331 billion exports and imports


of US$194 billion.


Russia sells a broad range of commodities and manufactures including petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, wood and wood products, metals, chemicals, and a wide variety of civilian and military manufactures. The largest trading partners for exports are the Netherlands, Germany, China, Italy and Ukraine. Russia imports machinery and equipment, consumer goods, medicines, meat, grain, sugar, and semi- finished metal products. Russia’s largest trading partners for imports are China, Germany, Ukraine, Italy and Turkey. If we are talking about air freight


we can see that among top export commodities are raw materials,


duties (experts say that they will drop to 5%), liberalisation of customs regulations and weakening of protectionist measures in terms of domestic goods which will slightly remove barriers for foreign goods and investors. On the other hand, WTO membership will liſt up the level of consumption and business activity. We do assume that these factors will stimulate export/import flows to our country. Are the troubles in the Eurozone affecting business to/from Russia? The harsh reality is that


Eurozone crisis does not keep distance


from any airline


operating at that market. As mentioned previously the main trade partners of Russia are in Europe and the problems which these countries


are


experiencing right now like the of downgrading of the Euro, instability (in view of the fact that 40% of Russia’s reserve fund is in Euros) are of major concern for our country. All these problems will have an impact on the trade balance and at the end of the


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40