Member Spotlight: AirBridgeCargo

By Nikolay Glushnev, General Director, AirBridgeCargo

AirBridgeCargo is a Russian cargo carrier and has been a Cargo iQ member since 2007.

In this Member Spotlight, Nikolay Glushnev, General Director at AirBridgeCargo talks about why the airline joined Cargo iQ and the benefits of membership, as well as the main challenges and opportunities facing the industry right now.

Why and when did you join Cargo iQ?

AirBridgeCargo (ABC) Airlines has been an active member of Cargo iQ since 2007, supporting its initiatives and working under quality improvement of the air cargo industry together with the other 80+ members of Cargo iQ. In April 2016, following a two-day audit, the company was issued the Cargo iQ certificate after it successfully passed the audit procedures for compliance with the International Air Transport Association’s Cargo iQ quality standards. The document was presented during the session of Cargo iQ Technical Group in Essen, Germany, on 19th April. This year ABC successfully passed the second audit, reconfirming its compliance with Cargo iQ quality standards.

The main reasons that ABC became a Cargo iQ member was to harmonize the standards within the supply chain, to be able to speak one language with all supply chain stakeholders, and to confirm our high-quality standards. Basically, Cargo iQ serves as an entrance ticket to validate our high-level of quality performance.

How does being a Cargo iQ member help your business?

Cargo iQ’s mission of creating and implementing quality standards for the air freight industry echoes our aim to constantly improve our quality services. Compliance with Cargo iQ standards serves as proof for other supply chain stakeholders that our company is a reliable partner in air freight transportation.

Cargo iQ also provides the possibility to network with major customers, understand their requirements, and tailor our products and services according to their needs, bringing maximum benefit to their business, as well as ours.

What are the main challenges in air cargo right now? What are the main opportunities?

The air cargo industry is in turbulent times right now, with a downward trend, which is caused by many factors and presents a number of challenges for the market players, among them being:

- a decrease of traffic on some trade lanes which forces market players to seek for other city-pairs (or rather airport pairs) with stable growth;

- the emerging trade protection trend hinders the world economy’s development, which influences freight traffic between certain counties and regions;

- the relocation of production facilities from China to other South East Asian countries (Vietnam, Bangladesh, Cambodia). On the one hand, this stimulates expansion of new markets and network, but on the other hand, it presents a challenge for cargo carriers as some airports simply lack sufficient infrastructure ready to handle major cargo volumes, including special commodities;