Tenth Ruslan for tenth anniversary

Published: 7/13/2000

Volga-Dnepr (VD) will take delivery of its tenth An-124 Ruslan on 21st July as part of a ceremony marking the airline's 10th anniversary, The structure of payment for the aircraft by VD includes the now accepted mix of providing working capital to finish the aircraft and then period payments when the aircraft is in service. According to VD however, the purchase of the aircraft is a cash deal and does not involve the purchasing of Aviastar's debts to its various suppliers at a deep discount to their face value and then negotiating a completion. This is a practice that is reported to have been used by a number of other buyers. The new aircraft, a modernised An-124-100 which meets ICAO standards, marks something of a thaw in relations between the operator and the aircraft's designer Antonov. The relationship between the two companies deteriorated significantly last year after a dispute about the life extensions on the An-124 airframes, relating to both the length of time at which extensions were required and the cost. It appears these disagreements have been in part resolved by a compromise, which has seen Antonov reduce the charges and VD being given more time to pay for the extensions on their two aircraft that have exceeded the limit of 7000 hours of flying. The new aircraft has a lifetime of 24,000 hours for both airframe and its D-18T engines, the latter increasing from 3500 hours in the mid-nineties and a 4000 hour improvement on reports earlier this year. The reported cost to ZMKB Progress, the engines' Ukrainian maker, is $50m. It is also reported that the renewed relations between the Antonov Bureau and VD have been accompanied by similar strengthening of contacts between Antonov Airlines and VD There are reports of cooperation on avionics for operating within US and European airspace and a number of other areas including handling equipment for outsized loads. Given the dominant position of these two carriers, with a reported 90% of the heavy lift market, closer cooperation between the two cannot necessarily been seen as a good thing for customers, with the aggressive competition between the two to date. It may however, lead to a more rational pricing structure for the airlines allowing them the surpluses necessary to replace and invest in aircraft to meet the future demand in one of the fastest growing segments of the cargo market. The cooperation will also extend to other Antonov aircraft namely the An-70 and the An-140 according to Alexey Isaikin of Volga Dnepr. Isaikin stated that he was of the view that the An-70 had good prospects.

Article ID: 1939