Heavy freight bound for the oil & gas industry in Azerbaijan will be shipped through Stansted Airport via a deal involving the Essex hub’s newest cargo operator.

Silk Way West begins twice-weekly services between Stansted and Baku Heydar Aliyev International, Azerbaijan, this month primarily carrying heavy freight bound for the oil and gas industry and other heavy industrial equipment.

Wickes Air Services numbers some of the world’s major cargo carriers, including Atlas Air, British Airways, Cargolux, Evergreen, TNT and Martinair among its clients and fought off stiff competition to win the contract.

The company is regarded as Europe’s largest provider of loadmasters and began operations in 1986 at Gatwick.

Wickes’ Matt Morland, said: “After working closely with Silk Way West in the setup of its operation through London Stansted, our aim is to help the company make a success of its new operation by providing every professional service it may need.”

Silk Way West Airlines is operating its brand new B767-300 freighter, one of two bought from Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Seattle earlier this year, on the Stansted-Baku run.

The two B767-300ERFs are the latest addition to a fleet that also includes three B747-400, eight IL76 and five AN12, operating worldwide scheduled and charter services.

Nidjat Babayev for Silk Way West Airlines said: “The Stansted operation complements our existing scheduled operations into Shanghai and Hong Kong in Asia and Frankfurt Hahn and Milan Malpensa in Europe.

“Our Stansted-Baku flight allows excellent connection options for cargo transportation between Britain and Caspian region countries, like Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Georgia, where oil and gas projects are constantly developing.”