November 2 - London's Heathrow Airport has welcomed AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC) as its second dedicated cargo-only service.
The UK airport says that the ABC service will offer 100 tonnes of additional cargo capacity a week to Heathrow, and will be welcome news to the country's exporters, which are currently facing a shortage of bellyhold capacity.
Heathrow recently received government backing for a third runway, which it says will allow the airport to add 40 destinations and almost double its cargo capacity. The airport is also investing GBP180 million (USD221 million) over 15 years to improve its cargo infrastructure.
ABC, which is owned by Volga-Dnepr Group, will operate an "ad-hoc weekly service" according to Heathrow. The London airport becomes ABC's 14th European service destination.
"Europe, together with China, has been our prime and anchored market since the very first day of our operations, showing stable results and supporting ABC's performance, 2016 being no exception with 22 percent year-on-year growth of tonnage out of Europe during the nine months of the year," said Volga-Dnepr Group's senior vice president of sales and marketing, Robert van de Weg.
