More changes at AirBridge and Cargolux

The world’s two biggest all-cargo carriers both announced personnel changes at or near the top – the second time in recent weeks for both.

Denis Ilin, the much-respected Executive President of AirBridgeCargo Airlines, resigned. In the last three years he led ABC to the best performance in the air freight industry, as the carrier’s cargo traffic rose by over 20% per year during the period. He also orchestrated ABC’s recent twenty-unit 747-8 Freighter order with Boeing.

Neither Mr Ilin nor the Volga-Dnepr Group (AirBridge’s parent) gave any reason for the move, and no successor has been named.

Meanwhile, from 2,000 km east of ABC’s Moscow headquarters, comes the announcement from Luxembourg that Jason Holt, Executive Vice President for Flight Operations at Cargolux, “has decided to move on to a new opportunity.” Mr. Holt had only been with Cargolux for a year. In his place, Cargolux has appointed 18-year company veteran Claude Zehren on an interim basis, and indicated the likelihood that he will take over the job permanently.

It is only recently that both Volga-Dnepr and Cargolux each lost another senior executive, with Group Vice President Wolfgang Meier leaving V-D (to move to Silk Way Airlines), and CEO Dirk Reich leaving Cargolux.