In a presentation to senior executives of Russia's leading businesses, he said strong sustainable growth will see Russia benefit from higher than average gains in export and import traffic as well as the development of a substantial multi-billion dollar domestic air cargo market. This will also stimulate the market for Russian-built cargo aircraft and bring new employment and growth opportunities for businesses involved in supplying components and other services to aircraft manufacturers, Mr Isaikin added.
'Over five years, our scheduled cargo airline, AirBridgeCargo Airlines, has increased its cargo volume processed through Moscow's Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo Airports to 300,000 tons. Our growth has served as the basis for the establishment and development of the elementary cargo infrastructure at the two leading airports of Russia and we hope their development will continue to keep pace with air cargo growth forecasts because this will bring important benefits to the Russian economy.'
He continued: 'Four modern cargo hubs in Moscow, St.' Petersburg, Vladivostok and Novosibirsk or Krasnoyarsk, each having one million tons capacity, could generate $24 billion of revenue from processing air cargo.'
Alexey Isaikin also drew the attention of the audience to the exciting prospects from developing domestic air cargo services within Russia. He named Federal Express as an example ' the world's largest cargo carrier which generates 40% of its annual revenue on domestic routes. 'If we are able to reproduce this business model in Russia ' which is based on consistent development of regional air cargo services accommodated by cargo hubs ' we will establish a market with a total size of $80 billion by the year 2030. This is a high-tech industry that represents a step beyond a raw materials-based economy,' he said.
In his report, Alexey Isaikin outlined the scope of Volga-Dnepr's presence in the global air cargo market, achieved through active use of AN-124-100 Ruslan and IL-76 aircraft. He again reinforced the Group's commitment to continue to increase its use of these aircraft, confirmed by an order for 40 new AN-124 and 20 new IL-76 aircraft that has been placed with United Aircraft Corporation of Russia (UAC).
Mr. Isaikin expressed his strong conviction that a well-developed transportation system in Russia and, first of all, inter-regional air logistics, would create favourable conditions for strong growth in Russia's production industry. 'To ensure delivery of equipment between different regions for both mining and processing of natural resources, at least 200 aircraft will be required of various sizes and capacities ' from 1 ton to 20 tons. We now have a good outlook for business development over the next 20 years.'
