From the Caspian Sea, the German pilots Europe’s second-largest pure cargo aircraft.
Baku Wolfgang Meier cannot hide the slightly Hessian accent, the heart of the aviation manager, who grew up in Bad Homburg, beats for Frankfurt’s harmony. However, the father of five children has no time for homesickness in his office 4,000 kilometers away, which Meier has decorated with countless photos and models of old cargo planes: the 59-year-old German is in charge of Azerbaijan’s largest private company, the cargo plane Silk Way West.
And it’s growing rapidly these days – promoted by the sanctions against neighboring Russia.
The airline, which was founded in the capital Baku, wants to exceed the sales mark of two billion euros this year, and it employs over 1000 people. Only the state-owned oil and gas company Socar is even larger in the country. Why does a German of all people command an airline on the Caspian Sea? “Every company has to be so good that it can stand a German at the top,” jokes the air freight veteran about his assignment.
In fact, however, Silk Way West does benefit from its German CEO. Meier not only made sure that his airline flies continental European freight from the Baku hub preferably to Frankfurt-Hahn, where Silk Way West is allowed to take off and land 24 hours a day.
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He personally takes care of things when there is a problem at Hunsrück Airport – often to the chagrin of the managers there. “My phone often rings after midnight,” reports Roger Scheifele, Head of Sales at Frankfurt-Hahn Airport.
Failure of competitor due to western sanctions
The airline, which was founded ten years ago and has been headed by Meier for six years, has experienced a steep rise since the outbreak of the Ukraine war. Because the airspace over Russia is blocked for European and American airlines, a large part of the urgent air freight now goes through the hub in Baku, which is controlled by Silk Way.
Added to this is the loss of a major competitor. The Russian aircargo rival Volga-Dnepr (VD), known for its oversized Antonov freighters, is no longer allowed to fly to many countries due to western sanctions, lessors and insurance companies have refused to cooperate with the people of Moscow, and the authorities have arrested several freighters abroad. Hardly any of the former 50 transport planes have taken off in recent weeks.
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“We have thus become the second largest pure cargo airline in Europe after Cargolux,” says Meier. However, the German may not be gleeful about it. After all, it was VD President Alexei Isaikin who brought him to Russia from the Swiss forwarding company Panalpina. From 2009, Meier managed the VD air freight subsidiary Air Bridge Cargo. In 2014, Isaikin appointed him to his corporate board.
Last month, however, the 69-year-old airline founder ended up on the UK’s sanctions list, which accused him of working closely with Moscow’s mayor. His possessions in the West have since been frozen.
Years of service to Volga-Dnepr ensured the family of six stayed in Russia’s capital after Meier’s re-signing. He himself checked into a hotel across from Baku Airport. “I don’t even need a car in Azerbaijan,” explains Meier, who is usually met by employees in jeans and a black Eintracht jersey. “It’s only a few steps to the office.”
Optimal time for an expansion
Of course, commuting at the weekend with Aeroflot could soon become a problem for the frequent flyer. After Putin’s attack on Ukraine, Boeing and Airbus stopped supplying spare parts for the Russian state airline. Uncertainties now cling to the flight plan, literally.
On the other hand, the company’s own airline, which is owned by the Azerbaijani founder Zaur Akhundov, is currently going up steeply. Since the first flight with a jumbo freighter to Hahn Airport in 2012, eleven more Boeing 747s have been added – the last two, which had previously been leased to an external company, at the end of February. In June, Meier signed purchase contracts for two additional Airbus 350F freighters.
“Until now we have always flown in the shadow of Moscow because Russia has a huge and uniform airspace,” says the CEO in Baku. “Now is the best time to expand.”
Looking at the airport apron, his Russian past quickly catches up with him again. Sister company Silk Way Airlines, which was founded in 2001, has stationed five Ilyushin 76 cargo planes in Baku, old Soviet-made transporters. They mainly fly to remote airfields with dubious infrastructure.
Meier’s home country is also the beneficiary here. The Azerbaijani cargo airline not only supplied Bundeswehr soldiers in Afghanistan. To this day, it supports their mission in Mali, Africa, with civilian supplies.
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