OREANDA-NEWS. November 12, 2007. S7 Airlines has been granted the Certificate of inclusion in the Register of Customs Carriers, valid for 5 years until August, 2012; the Certificate will not resrict the airway company’s region of operating as a customs carrier. The new status will allow the company to provide customs clearing on the territory of the Russian Federation at destination stations, rather than at transfer points during cargo transfer from international flights to domestic, like it was done before.

Being granted the status of a customs carrier comprises the next step in expanding the complex of services provided by the company. From now on, taking into account the widest route network in Russia, as well as S7 Airlines’ inter-line cargo agreements with foreign partners, our customers will be able to ship or receive their cargo at any point on the globe that has no direct connection to Russian cities.

”We hope this will be particularly interesting to transportation companies which now will be able to build most advantageous logistics schemas with regard to the time and cost of transportation”, says Vladislav Filyov, General Director of OAO “Airway Company Siberia” /S7 Airlines/.

S7 Airlines is one of the leading freight carriers among Russian airway companies, although it does not own a single cargo aircraft. In 2006, S7 Airlines transported 28,904 tons of cargo and mail, ranking the 3rd among Russian carriers, including freight carriers (according to the Transportation Clearing House’s ratings). In nine months of 2007, S7’s flights transported 22,489 tons of cargo and mail, which was by 8% more than the similar period last year.

All arrangements for cargo transportation by all S7 Airlines’ flights are made by the company that has been created in 2006 specifically for the purpose, S7 Cargo. Both the appointment of the General agent for sales of freight transportation and transfer of control over cargo capacities from the airway company to an independent organization allowed to change radically approaches to cargo transportation by flights of the company that is basically passenger-oriented. By comparison to the last year’s results, revenues from sales of cargo and mail transportation have grown considerably. Says Aleksander Ushnurtsev, Director of Commerce of OOO “S7 CARGO” /S7 Cargo/: “A significant increase in revenue growth rates is the evidence of efficient control of cargo capacities and proves the appropriateness of the company’s tariff policies”.