Air One has appointed Ilya Gavrilin as business development director for the Asia Pacific region to drive scheduled and charter freighter growth.
In his new role, Gavrilin will lead commercial growth, strengthen client partnerships, and support network expansion in the Asia Pacific region for the firm’s managed freighter fleet of 11 Boeing 747-400Fs and two Boeing 777Fs.
He is based at Air One’s regional headquarters in Hong Kong. The new role comes after the airline launched scheduled 747 operations from Hong Kong to the UK’s East Midlands Airport in September of last year, after previously providing charter flights from the region.
Gavrilin joins from his former role as vice president of Eures Express in Hong Kong.
Previoulsy, he spent moer than 12 years with Volga-Dnepr Airlines and Volga-Dnepr Group in commercial roles in Europe and Asia Pacific, setting up the Group’s presence in Hong Kong and, ultimately, serving as deputy commercial director for Boeing 747 charters, and as head of integrated logistics services (ILS).
The company said that throughout his career, Gavrilin has built an “impressive track record”, from “securing major charter cargo agreements and exceeding revenue targets during some of the industry’s most challenging market conditions, to launching new business verticals”.
Air One chairman Guneet Mirchandani said: “As a seasoned commercial leader with over 15 years of experience and deep expertise across major Asia Pacific markets, Ilya will help to drive our expansion across the region.
“His focus is to build on our well-established presence as a leading provider of freighter capacity, and to leverage our scheduled and charter capabilities to open new business opportunities for our clients as well as for AIR ONE and our partners.”
Over the past five years, Air One has operated more than 2,843 Boeing freighter flights connecting the region with major cargo markets in Europe and beyond, of which 1,874 originated from Hong Kong.
