Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) reported a 20% increase in cargo tonnage in June, transporting 779 tons during the month, and it expects this trend to continue with the arrival of larger capacity passenger aircraft, plans to add a second freighter to its fleet and continued network expansion.

The airline has taken delivery of four Boeing 737-800 passenger aircraft in 2009/10, boosting cargo capacity to 4,000 kilos per flight. These are being used on UIA's routes linking Kiev with Alma-Ata, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Tbilisi, Tel Aviv, Rome, Barcelona and Lisbon.

UIA Cargo also operates a Boeing 757SF-300 freighter between Kiev, Vienna and Liege with 18,300 kilos of capacity ' and is working to add a second all-cargo aircraft to its fleet.

Tel Aviv and Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan are two of the latest routes to join the UIA network, along with Geneva and Dubrovnik, Pula and Split in Croatia.

Overall, UIA's fleet of 19 Boeing 737 aircraft operates some 450 flights a week connecting Ukraine with London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Frankfurt, Vienna, Zurich, Rome, Milan, Naples, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Helsinki, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Tbilisi, Monastir, Almaty, Geneva, Nice, Tel-Aviv, Pula, Dubrovnik, Split, Copenhagen, Tripoli, Faro, Funchal, Porto, Muskat, Bahrain, Johannesburg, and Kuwait. In addition to Kiev, flights also link with Odessa, Lvov, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov and Simferopol.

Peter Kukharchuk, UIA's Director, Cargo & Mail, said: 'Based on our performance in the first six months of the year, we are very optimistic for the rest of 2010. We have an extremely strong network in Europe, supported by our global GSA partner European Cargo Services (ECS), that is served by regular freighter and lower deck cargo capacity and one of our main objectives is to continually promote our growing network to freight forwarders. Over the next 12 months we plan to develop our freighter services and UIA Cargo's main hub at Kiev's Borispol Airport.'