Silk Way West Airlines to offer unique freighter capacity on WebCargo’s digitalcargo booking platform
Fast-growing freight operator Silk Way West Airlines to enable Digital Air Cargo real-time pricing and eBooking for thousands of forwarders on WebCargo, the world’s largest air cargo booking platform.
December 16, 2021 BAKU/BARCELONA – Supply chain challenges this year, which saw air cargo demand 10% higher than 2019 levels and ocean rates four times higher than already elevated prices at the start of the year, have reinforced the need for more
efficient air cargo capacity utilization and booking. Digital Air Cargo has emerged as a key tool to address this, with strong support from both airlines and forwarders.
Continuing this trend of air cargo innovation, Silk Way West Airlines, a top-25 global all-freighter airline, is joining WebCargo’s air cargo booking platform, enabling access to real-time pricing and booking across their rapidly growing fleet for over 10,000 freight forwarder offices globally. As of mid-January 2022, capacity across Silk Way West Airlines’ 13 freighters, which connect over 40 destinations across Europe, Asia,
and the Americas, will be made available to WebCargo forwarders around the world starting from Europe.
“It has become clear that the pandemic and increased global logistics demand has accelerated the need to offer digital booking capabilities for air freight,” said Mr. Wolfgang Meier, CEO and President of Silk Way West Airlines. “Building on the strength of a full freighter network, Silk Way West Airlines looks forward to the new year by extending greater service accessibility and capacity visibility to our valued customers 24/7.”
Demand for Digital Air Cargo via the WebCargo platform has soared during 2021, with over 10x growth on a strong 2020, resulting in hundreds of thousands of eBookings on WebCargo. Airlines have also encouraged adoption; Silk Way West Airlines’ addition brings the level of global capacity across top-100 airlines digitized on WebCargo to over 35%.
“In 2017, air cargo digitization was a question of if the industry could adapt. By 2019 it was a question of when. Today, we’re asking how much faster it can go. Freighters like Silk Way West Airlines are showing that the answer is ‘faster than you can possibly imagine’,” said Manel Galindo, CEO of WebCargo. “We’re witnessing a massive shift towards Digital Air Cargo reflected on WebCargo’s booking and rate management platform and are proud to welcome Silk Way West Airlines to our list of innovative partner airlines”.
Founded in 2012 in Baku, at the heart of the Silk Road, Silk Way West Airlines is the largest cargo airline in the Caspian Sea region. Based at Heydar Aliyev International Airport, the airline operates around 350 monthly flights across the globe via its fleet of 12 dedicated Boeing 747-8F and 747-400F aircraft. On April 28, 2021, Silk Way West Airlines signed a strategic fleet expansion agreement with Boeing for five state-of-the-art 777 Freighters. The airline’s annual cargo turnover exceeds 420,000 tons, while its growing route network covers over 40 destinations across Europe, the CIS, the Middle East, Central and Eastern Asia, and North and South America. South Korea’s Incheon Airport honoured Silk Way West Airlines with the prestigious ‘Cargo Airline of the Year 2020’ award.
Silk Way Group, founded in July 2006, is a dynamically developing group of companies that occupies a leading position in the Azerbaijani economy. The group was re-organized into three companies in 2019 – Silk Way Airlines, Silk Way West Airlines and Silk Way Technics, providing air cargo transportation and aircraft maintenance services.
WebCargo® is the most advanced digitization platform for logistics service providers.
WebCargo Air is the leading platform for live air cargo rate distribution and bookings between hundreds of airlines and 2,000+ forwarders. Partners using fully digital eBooking and rate distribution on WebCargo include over 30 airlines, including Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, Etihad Cargo, Air France KLM, IAG Cargo, SAS, Qatar Airways, El Al, and AirBridgeCargo. Freight forwarders can access dynamic capacity, pricing, and
eBooking by signing up for free at webcargo.co.
WebCargo AcceleRate® is the leading platform for enterprise freight forwarders to manage rates and automate sales, spanning ocean, air and land. Customers include Hellmann, Nippon Express, DSV Panalpina, and dozens more.
WebCargo joined the Freightos Group in 2016. The Freightos Group also operates freightos.com, the world’s largest digital freight platform for the trillion-dollar international shipping industry, and the Freightos Baltic Index, the only daily container index, in collaboration with the Baltic Exchange. Founded by serial entrepreneur Zvi Schreiber, Freightos is a logistics technology pioneer with a worldwide presence, and has
raised $92 million from leading venture funds, including GE Ventures, Aleph and the Singapore Exchange.