Airbridgecargo Airlines, the scheduled cargo airline of Russia's Volga-Dnepr Group, has started service between Moscow's Domodedovo Airport and Tokyo's Narita Airport using Boeing 747 Freighters.

This comes after ABC launched services to Nagoya in early 2006 as part of a long-term relationship with Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA). It now operates three flights a week to Nagoya.

The launch of services to and from Tokyo follows successful negotiations between Russian and Japanese aviation authorities, a company statement said.

ABC will initially operate one flight a week on the Moscow, Tokyo, Krasnoyarsk route, and has since been given rights to increase its operations to and from Narita between 2008 and 2010.

As part of the development of its business partnership with NCA, Airbridge will also provide additional cargo capacity on Nippon's twice-weekly flights from Tokyo to Frankfurt via the AirBridge hub in Krasnoyarsk in the Russian Far East.

AirBridgeCargo Airlines and Nippon Cargo Airlines began co-operating in October 2005 when NCA was appointed as ABC's general sales agent in Japan.