airBaltic Cargo was established as a separate department of the airline in 1997. Today, cargo can be sent on airBaltic flights from Riga to 38 destinations and beyond, all over the world, with the airline's many partner carriers. The total weight sent by airBaltic Cargo is growing constantly every year – by 30% a year for the last three years. The biggest amounts of cargo tend to be sent between Riga and Copenhagen, since airBaltic has the largest number of frequencies on this route. Copenhagen is used predominately as a transit destination where cargo is sent on to further destinations to which airBaltic has no direct flights. But a great deal of cargo is also sent to and from cities such as London, Brussels, Vilnius, Minsk, Kiev, Istanbul, Barcelona, Tallinn, Moscow and Tbilisi. For example, on every flight to Tbilisi there are at least 1.5 tonnes of cargo, sometimes even as many as 3 tonnes. Of course, passengers and their luggage always have the priority on every flight, but the remaining weight allowed on aircraft is filled by post and other cargo. The main advantage for using air cargo and not haulage by road or sea is, of course, speed. But no less important is safety – cargo is much safer in the air (you can't steal it and you can't damage it) than it is bouncing around in the back of a truck. Fragile cargo such as medicines or even animals are far more reliably dispatched by air. airBaltic Cargo works not with its end customers but through specialized sales agents. In other words, if you want to send something by air cargo, you have to contact a sales representative in your home country – a list of these is available at http://cargo.airbaltic.com. |
