newstodate.aero

May 29, 2020 (newstodate): Since May 9, 2019, the Russian carrier Atran Airlines has been operating at Latvia's Riga Airport - and the carrier sees good prospect for further growth.
   Starting out with one weekly rotation, the carrier's weekly Boeing 737-800BCF freighters connect to the Volga-Dnepr Group's freighter service between Moscow and Hangzhou, in China, providing up to 23 tonnes of cargo capacity for e-commerce shipments from Cainiao Network, the logistics arm of Alibaba Group, into Riga Airport and onward to the European markets.
   Speaking at yesterday's webinar, the carrier had good news in support of the airport's endeavors to bolster its role in the region's air cargo industry.
   -Since May, we have increased our traffic from three to five weekly rotations, and I hope to see this continuing into June, with further increases thereafter, said Vitaliy Andreev, Atran Airlines CEO.
   -During the Covid-19 crisis we have seen strong growth in e-commerce, with cross-border e-trade overtaking local purchases as home-locked consumers shop on the internet for competitively priced goods.   
   -In addition, the demand for health and care goods has been rising, too, generating a boost in volumes of e-trade shipments.
   -We are proud of the performance at Riga Airport that will gain further in competition with other alternatives as  it continues to streamline all procedures to make operations simple and efficient for its customers, said Mr Andreev.