OREANDA-NEWS. September 19, 2011. Volga-Dnepr Airlines, the world’s largest transporter of outsize and heavyweight air cargo, is to open its own sales office in Japan to reflect the country’s importance and strong growth in demand for its services.

The airline has appointed Tak Konita as Senior Charter Representative, Japan, based in Tokyo, to head up its sales activities. He has got over 25 years of forwarding experience.

Dennis Gliznoutsa, Group Commercial Director (Charters) for Volga-Dnepr, said: ‘Japan has always been an extremely important market for us and is responsible for between 10-18% of our revenues. As part of the development of our ‘Cargo Supermarket’ marketing concept — which incorporates scheduled Boeing 747F services to and from Japan by our sister airline, AirBridgeCargo — we are always looking at new opportunities and niche markets, particularly in regions where we have experienced strong growth.

“One of our biggest competitive advantages is our strong in-house global sales infrastructure and highly professional sales teams in Russia, China, the UAE, Germany, UK, and the USA. We have established long-term business relationships with customers in Japan and we see great opportunities to attract more new business for the Group by now opening our own office in Japan. In taking this decision, we wish to acknowledge the long and fruitful co-operation we have enjoyed with our former GSA partner in Japan, IAS, which has represented us successfully since 2003.”

Volga-Dnepr’s new office will commence operation in October.