Russian freight carrier AirBridgeCargo (ABC) loses a great leader. As the carrier announced today (1 August), Denis Ilin has given up his post as Executive President. Reasons for his sudden and widely unexpected departure were not delivered by the Moscow-based management. Neither do they indicate in their release who will succeed him or act as interim helmsman.
Under Denis’ stewardship, AirBridgeCargo embarked on a growth trajectory, seen by the constant increase of the freighter fleet and the successive network expansion. Only four weeks ago, ABC
started serving Phnom Penh, Cambodia, upping the number destinations served in South East Asia to eleven. Shortly before, effective May 23, the carrier introduced a weekly Houston-Abu
Dhabi-Moscow flight. The list of route expansions is almost endless.
In their release, ABC speaks of Ilin’s resignation “in accordance with mutual agreements.”
Ten years at ABC
The manager started his career in the Moscow-headquartered line-haul subsidiary of the Volga-Dnepr group as Director of Operations. From 2006 to 2008, he worked as General Director of the airline
and later rejoined the AirBridgeCargo team in 2013 to hold the position of Executive President.
In their press release, Ilin’s contribution to the boosting of the airline’s operational results and overall FTK figures as well as to opening the new ABC stations in North America and Southeast
Asia is highly praised. He has brought the company to its present solid position in key markets, reads the text. Denis Ilin directly participated in establishing the long-term business
relationships with key customers and strategic partners such as Boeing and General Electric, which resulted in the signing of the major agreement for the delivery of 20 state-of-the-art В747-8F
cargo aircraft.
Painful bereavement
The announcement ends by stating, “the top management of Volga-Dnepr Group would like to express their gratitude to Denis Ilin for his substantial contribution to the development of the scheduled
cargo business of AirBridgeCargo Airlines and wish him every success in his business career.”
Whatever the reasons for his departure might have been, fact is that ABC loses a high-level professional that will be hard to replace. For the media his exit is a loss since in his role as ABC
Chief he preferred to communicate directly and frankly with the people from the press.
Heiner Siegmund
Write a comment