Russia's Tatyana Arslanova leads ABC to outperform air freight pack

HAVING a woman run an all-cargo airline is rare enough, but rarer still is having her find riches in the traditionally sluggish Russian economy - though that's what happened to Moscow-based AirBridgeCargo CEO Tatyana Arslanova.

Doing a thriving business between China and Russia, she now hopes to expand into the United States, already having set up in Chicago, and looking south to an Atlanta, all the while bucking the ebb tide of a globally slow global air freight.

ABC, the cargo division of Volga-Dnepr Airlines, boasts 8.5 per cent growth year on year in the first eight months of 2012, running counter to slowing global growth rate reported by the International Air Transport Association.

"We see that the Russian market continually grows," she said, adding that 50 per cent of her trade is with Russia.

"And that's going against the stream of worldwide traffic," she said in an interview with Atlanta-area Air Cargo World.

Ms Arslanova said making way against headwinds means adapting to customer demands and being ready to innovate, deploying an "innovative management style, understanding your business model and understanding how to be sustainable from a long-term perspective."

A weak global air freight market induced her to scrap expansion plans next year. Anticipating flat growth for 2013, Ms Arslanova said ABC would not add capacity on but instead focus on improving productivity and efficiency.

Even so, Ms Arslanova maintains that ABC is constantly on the lookout for new, profitable regions to serve. The US, in particular, is attractive. Although Air Cargo Germany is completely taking over ABC's traffic between Europe and North America, Ms Arslanova has her eyes set on a breakthrough into US markets.

"We operate in Chicago right now, and we are looking to expand our network with our partners to Atlanta and other destinations in four years. We want cargo from the US to Russia," she said.

"For us, it's about key decisions," she said, "decisions about which markets to serve and which solutions to provide, and the growth we can provide."

Ms Arslanova credits success to serving profitable destinations, starting with a thrice weekly service to Chengdu to major European destinations, including Moscow and Amsterdam. An ABC route from Moscow to Chongqing commenced four months later, a service complementing the carrier's route to the busy manufacturing hub of Zhengzhou.

"We feel that the logistics traffic is moving to central China, so we started routes to Chengdu and Chongqing to provide better services to key shippers," she said.

In March, ABC started service from Hannover-Langenhagen to Beijing via Moscow, capitalising on the carrier's recently acquired 49 per cent of Air Cargo Germany.

One memorable job this year was flying a 1,146-pound walrus from Russia to Germany. Another was flying 100 tonnes of food to NATO forces in Afghanistan.

She joined Volga-Dnepr Group's marketing department in 1995, became marketing vice president in 2008 to lead the company subsidiary ABC's marketing department, becoming chief executive of ABC in 2010.

Ms Arslanova concedes that the firm is suffering in the general global air cargo slowdown and expects little expansion in 2013 and a flat year ahead.

"But we believe in the future, and for us it's time to change - time to change in terms of services we can provide. We have a lot of ideas about how to change, how to be more innovative, and how to deliver cargo faster," she said.

ABC has bought two Boeing 747-8Fs, elevating its 747 fleet to 12 freighters. The aircraft, deployed on China, Moscow and Europe routes have replaced older Boeing planes.

The 747-8Fs are game-changers, she said, because they allow ABC to meet the highest environmental compliance standards, while providing the airline the "youngest freighter fleet in the industry".

ABC is an associate member of IATA's Cargo 2000, having started test flights using air waybills last summer, two years after launching its own e-freight initiative.

Ms Arslanova said it would provide a competitive advantage in Russia, where customs procedures are sluggish.

The key to the future lies in an ability to adapt, she said. "It's a tough and challenging environment, and we have to fight to survive and to provide better solutions."