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Peace dividend for Ruslan’s Civvy Street customers


Shippers should welcome these comparatively peaceful times – not just because war is intrinsically a bad thing, but because it opens up more of the freighter market to commercial users. With the winding down of military campaigns in Afghanistan and the wider Middle East, the market for the 17-strong Ruslan fleet of giant


Antonov 124 freighters


is comparatively quiet at the moment, say sales vice president Valerii Kulbaka


and business


development manager, Michael Goodisman. For the Russian-Ukrainian


joint venture carrier, “it means that we now have much better availability than in the past,” Goodisman points out. A few gaps have appeared in the programme which should allow Ruslan to offer attractive one-way pricing deals to use up surplus capacity in a way that wouldn’t have been possible when its planes were rushing from one set-down location to the next loading point. It’s a far cry from the days when capacity would have to be booked at least two months in advance. With its on-board cranes, ro ro


style ramps and complete kit of handling equipment – plus the ability to land on surprisingly short


runways


size – this is one plane that can go virtually anywhere there is a paved runway. The only thing that can prevent it flying are difficulties in obtaining traffic rights. While this is not a problem in most parts of the work for these Russian and Ukrainian-registered machines, the time taken to obtain them is lengthening in a few countries, says Kulbaka. He suggests that the charter industry should get together and put pressure on governments to reduce this. Certainly, Ruslan has been


increasing its commercial carrying lately. Defence-related business is still important, but now there is also aerospace, oil and gas and even ships’ parts, “sometimes to new and interesting destinations,” says Goodisman. For example, ship builders are using the An124 to transport large or unwieldy assemblies like pressure vessels. This is business that would have gone by sea in the past, but a rush of orders has forced the shipbuilders to look at faster air alternatives. Ruslan is a joint venture,


considering its


wholly owned by Ukraine aircraſt manufacturer and operator Antonov and Russian carrier Volga-Dnepr Group. Putting the two fleets together – seven from Antonov and 10 from Volga- Dnepr - meant a much more


More peaceful times mean more capacity for civilian traffic


Issue 6 2013


of the younger specimens far longer than that – perhaps another 20 years. Eventually, all the Ruslan An124s will be converted into An- 100-150 variants, which offer a higher payload of up to 150 tonnes, as against 120 tonnes and slightly longer range. There is also the possibility


that production of new An124s could be resumed, although this would be “a huge undertaking” and wouldn’t be accomplished overnight, warns Valerii Kulbaka. The real attraction of a


flexible, responsive and reliable operation than with the two smaller operations. Ruslan is the commercial arm of the operation; the air operation certificates remain in the hands of the two shareholders. Both


Antonov and Volga-


Dnepr operate other types of aircraſt outwith the Ruslan An124 operation.


Antonov has the


unique 225, which can carry an even heſtier payload than the An124. There is only one of this type flying although the parts do exist to create a second should the demand ever arise. And there is also the An70, a 47-tonne payload machine that was developed as a competitor to Airbus’s A400M military aircraſt – and which many say is the better machine, capable of landing on shorter runways. The


Volga-Dnepr has strong hopes that production of the giant Antonov 124 freighter will soon be restarted, says the charter operator’s sales director, Dmitry Grishin. It’s many years since the plane was last in production, and the current world fleet has only about a decade or so’s operational life leſt, although life extension work could prolong operation of some planes. Negotiations


between


the Russian and Ukrainian Governments are grinding on, and while they haven’t made as rapid progress as many in the industry would like, there are strong hopes that they will soon bear fruit. Antonov-watchers


have


however confidently predicted the resumption of An124 production in the past and been proved wrong. “I’m not too confident that it will happen any time soon,” one industry insider told us. The politics between Russia


Could Antonov 124 production line roll again? Plane makers use the Antonov


and Ukraine is delicate and complex, and goes far beyond the simple matter of making planes. Russia is involved because, although the assembly line is in Ukraine, many of the other components and systems were developed by Russian enterprises and that country would likely still play a major part in the production of any new models. Ukraine could conceivably go it alone, or more likely find partners in countries other than Russia, but that would incur Moscow’s displeasure, which Kiev would probably wish to avoid. The air charter market is


meanwhile fairly flat, although new demand from plane makers like Boeing has gone some way towards filling the gap leſt by the winding down of


military


operations in Afghanistan and a reduction in demand out of China, Grisham says.


124 to move large items like wings and stabilisers, and while road or sea transport is obviously more economical, aircraſt manufacturers are fighting to meet deadlines for large orders and are increasingly turning to air charter operators. Elsewhere, mining and energy


are helping to keep the air charter market in Russian and the former Soviet Union reasonably strong, says Grishin. There are big projects near Sakhalin


Island, Norilsk and


Khanty-Mansiysk, all of which are creating demand for An124 and Illuyshin 76 planes – as well as in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Satellite launches from the


Russian-owned space station at Baikonur in Kazakhstan and the Sochi Olympics in Russia are also fuelling demand.


Russia +7 495 7862613 Germany +49 6963 8097 100


plane may one day be released to the commercial market. Volga-Dnepr has a fleet of IL76


freighters and also the ABC 747F scheduled operation. The existing An124 fleet could


carry on for many years. The life extension work that has been carried out will mean that even the oldest planes in the Ruslan fleet can operate until 2027, and many


resumption of production is that the new An124-300 design that has been worked up would offer the higher, 150t-tonne payload, plus a significantly longer range than the existing model’s 2,500 miles, enough to cross the Atlantic without resorting to refuelling stops, for example. There are other An124s flying


for other operators in various parts of the world, including the military. Some of these could be converted for civilian operation although the avionics would have to be changed. Whatever source the planes come from, there is “huge demand”


27


for them, Goodisman insists. Despite the recession, there is still underlying growth in the market for these large freighters which fill a niche that more conventional types cannot. The market for 747Fs and similar may be flat on its back, but the An124 has always served an entirely different segment of the airfreight market. And to a large extent, this


large, self-contained aircraſt has created its own market. Many project designers are building machinery sized for the An124’s cargo hold and while the plane is oſten thought of as ‘emergency transport’ it is increasingly being built into manufacturing schedules


from the outset.


Flying an Antonov may cost more on paper than movement by sea or truck, but if the days or weeks that it saves means that a production line can be brought into operation sooner, pre- production prototype railway rolling stock shaken down before the main fleet arrives or several days’ extra output from an oilfield gained, then the plane can be the more cost-effective option.


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