Silk Way West Brand Guidelines: A 2012 Baku Freighter Airline, 747s, 777Fs & A350F Orders

A cargo-only airline at Heydar Aliyev airport.

Silk Way West Airlines was founded in June 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan, according to English Wikipedia, and the company’s own history says its journey began there in 2012. It is a cargo-only airline with its head office and main operating base at Heydar Aliyev International Airport, and it belongs to the Silk Way Group, which also includes the older Silk Way Airlines and the maintenance business Silk Way Technics, Wikipedia says. Silk Way Airlines, the sister company, dates from 2001, and the Ilyushin Il-76 freighters in the group are flown by that company rather than by Silk Way West, according to the same encyclopedia.

The airline describes itself as the largest cargo airline in the Caspian Sea region, a description English Wikipedia repeats. Its website says it has been a member of the International Air Transport Association since 2015, and it sums up its outlook in a two-word phrase, “Ambition Movers.” The same About page places Baku on the historic Silk Road, calling the city “the beating heart” of that route.

The business is a long-haul freighter operation. English Wikipedia describes around 350 flights a month and a network of more than 40 destinations across Europe, the CIS, the Middle East, Central and East Asia and the Americas. The company gives a similar picture, adding that it carries more than 500,000 tonnes of cargo a year — its own figure; Wikipedia gives an annual turnover of more than 420,000 tonnes, so the two accounts differ.

Route milestones appear in dated reports. In October 2018 the airline announced a twice-weekly freighter service from Baku to Tianjin in China, Wikipedia says, citing Air Cargo World. It has flown to Kansai in Japan since 2018 and to Tokyo Narita since 2021, and in August 2023 it announced direct flights from Baku to Los Angeles. In December 2022 it signed an air cargo memorandum of understanding with Nippon Express Holdings, and in June 2024 it signed a memorandum with China Henan Aviation Group in Shanghai, covering links between Zhengzhou and Baku.

Two generations of Boeing freighters, then Airbus.

Silk Way West has built its fleet around large Boeing freighters. When Boeing announced the carrier’s order for five 777 Freighters on 28 April 2021, at a signing ceremony in Baku, the manufacturer said the airline was already flying five 747-8 Freighters and seven 747-400 Freighters, and described the deal as the first purchase of the 777 Freighter in the Caspian region and Central Asia. Boeing said the 777F and the 747 freighters share a common main-deck pallet height, so the same tall pallets can be used across both types.

The order grew. FlightGlobal reported on 18 March 2024 that Silk Way West was ordering a sixth 777F, extending the 2021 agreement; two of the original five had arrived by then, and all were due by 2027. The same report noted that the 777Fs use General Electric GE90 engines and that the carrier had also signed for the 777-8 Freighter, Boeing’s next freighter model. The company’s website dates that agreement, for two aircraft, to 10 November 2022.

The airline also turned to Airbus. It agreed on 28 June 2022 to buy two A350 Freighters, the company says, and at the Dubai Airshow in November 2025 it exercised options for two more, bringing its commitment to four, Air Cargo News reported. Airbus was due to begin A350F deliveries in the second half of 2027, according to the same report, and English Wikipedia says the aircraft will be registered in Bermuda.

Wikipedia’s fleet table, citing the September 2025 global airline guide in Airliner World, lists five 747-400Fs, five 747-8Fs and three 777Fs in service as of August 2025, with further 777Fs, 777-8Fs and A350Fs on order. The company’s own page gives a fleet of 14 Boeing 777F, 747-8F and 747-400F aircraft, so the count depends on the date and the source.

The carrier’s other credentials come from its own pages and from an airport award. It says it holds a Good Distribution Practice (GDP) certificate for pharmaceutical cargo and time- and temperature-sensitive goods, and that it follows the United Nations Global Compact. Incheon International Airport in South Korea named it Cargo Airline of the Year in 2020, according to both the company and English Wikipedia. In October 2023 it hosted the Caspian Air Cargo Summit in Baku, which Wikipedia says drew around 400 delegates from more than 40 countries, including speakers from aircraft makers, engine makers and cargo handlers.

How cargo airlines present themselves.

A cargo airline sells something its customers rarely see: space in the dark of a main deck. Its identity therefore lives on the outside of the aircraft. A freighter has few or no cabin windows, so the fuselage reads as one long, clean surface, and the tail becomes the main signature. Across the category, tails are painted in strong, simple fields of red, blue, orange or grey that can be recognised from an apron or a ramp camera at a distance, with the name in large capitals along the side.

The aircraft themselves are part of the message. Freighter operators name their types openly, and widebody freighters such as the Boeing 747-8F and 777F are presented as capability rather than decoration: the nose door of a 747, the main-deck side door, the number of pallet positions. Fleet lists, with types, counts and specification sheets, sit near the top of many cargo airline websites, often next to the next aircraft on order.

The network is shown as a map. A hub sits at the centre, and lines run out to gateways on several continents, sometimes with the road-feeder trucks that carry freight on from the airport drawn in as well. Schedules are published as downloadable timetables, because the reader is usually a freight forwarder planning a booking rather than a traveller.

The rest of the visual language comes from the cargo. Pages on special cargo, from live animals and fresh produce to pharmaceuticals, dangerous goods and outsized machinery, each get their own name and photograph. Charter pages show unusual loads, and partner pages name the logistics companies and shippers for which aircraft are flown. For a designer, the category is a study in practical identity: few elements, large scale, and a register built for operations staff, not for passengers.

Leadership, statements and a name.

The airline’s leadership is visible in its press statements. Zaur Akhundov spoke as president of the Silk Way Group at the 2021 Boeing signing, saying the new freighters were part of the company’s fleet renewal, and again in March 2024, when FlightGlobal quoted him tying the extra 777F to an effort to reduce the company’s carbon footprint — the company’s own statement. Wolfgang Meier was quoted as president of Silk Way West Airlines when the A350F options were exercised in November 2025, describing the order as a milestone in the company’s growth.

The aircraft figures in those announcements come from the manufacturers. Boeing said in 2021 that the 777 Freighter has a range of 9,200 kilometres and a maximum payload of 102,000 kilograms, and that its main-deck side cargo door is 3.72 metres wide. Air Cargo News described the A350F as having a 111-tonne capacity, a range of 8,700 kilometres and, in its words, the largest main-deck cargo door in the sector.

The group’s name echoes the Silk Road, which the company’s About page invokes directly. The same website gives customers air waybill tracking, a fleet list, a page of network destinations and offices, and product pages, alongside its press room of dated announcements.

For a design guide, Silk Way West shows how a young freighter airline presents itself through its aircraft orders, its hub and a short tagline. Compare Cargolux, another all-cargo airline, and Atlas Air. For this guide we use a deep navy, a silk blue and a warm sand with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Silk Way West’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.