Published: 5/22/1998

Ilavia was founded four years ago to make use of aircraft belonging to the Ilyushin design bureau for generating a profit, which, in turn, would help Ilyushin survive in the new economic conditions. "Unlike many of our colleagues, we began from a zero point", Ernil Apopyan told ConCISe. Ilavia was established in May 1993 as a closed-type joint stock company. Flight operations began in July 1994, using one Il-18 and two Il-76s. The Ilyushin design bureau was one of Ilavia founders, and today many former Ilyushin employees, including pilots, technicians and flight test engineers, work in the airline. Since the start, Ilavia's hub has been Ilyushin's Flight Test Complex located within the Gromov Flight Test and Research Institute (LII) in Zhukovsky, some 40km south-east of Moscow. Among other companies which helped the new airline set its business Akopyan counts Aeroflot-Russian International Airlines, the Moskovski Bank, the Rossiya Insurance Society and the Military Insurance Company. Today, Ilavia is a prominent Russian cargo carrier, with with a 5% share of total cargo traffic . According to Emil Akopyan, the airline has managed to constantly increase its fleet and, most importantly, find new applications for them and its employees. Remarkably, Ilavia has maintained a 90% annual rise in its cargo figures! In 1994 the total flight time logged was 1900 hours, in 1997 the figure was 7800 hours. During the four years since its foundation, Ilavia fleet has tripled, now consisting of ten Il-76TDs and one Il-18D converted into a pure freighter. In 1997, the flight time per airframe averaged at 950 hours, which is not bad for Soviet-origin freighters flying cargo charters. Last year Ilavia carried 26,000 tonnes of cargo. The airline has its own cargo warehouses with a total area of 2500 sq.m, including its own customs warehouse. Ilavia foreign flights cover Italy, China, Arab Emirates and Turkey. Also, the airline regularly flies nine routes linking Moscow with nine large Russian cities, mostly in northern regions. Moreover, Ilavia maintains regular charter services from Ekaterinburg to Arab Emirates and China. Ilavia's success on the market came largely from an optimum control system for flight planning and management that the company had set in order to make the best use of its fleet and highly-experienced personnel. Plans for the near future call for being granted licences for scheduled flight operations and establishing a well-functioning door-to-door cargo delivery system. Also, it is planned to obtain the title "Airline of Federal Status" from the Federal Aviation Service of Russian Federation (FAS RF). By the end of the year Ilavia hopes to add another three-five airframes to its fleet. The company's management is keen to pioneer operations with the new types of Ilyushin freighters, the Il-96T and Il-76MF. Akopyan says the Il-76MF first prototype will enter operational service with Ilavia after the completion of its flight test programme. The high internal volume of the aircraft and low fuel consumption of its four Perm Motors PS-90 engines guarantees high revenues on long-distance charter routes. For instance, a fully-laden Il-76MF can fly the quite popular Moscow-Central China routes without a stop-over in Siberia, thus offering a big advantage over earlier Il-76 models powered by Rybinsk Motors D-30KP engines. (AL598.4) (VK)  

Article ID: 172