Heavy Lift to provide funds for the completion of AN-124s at Aviastar and reviews potential for Tu-204 cargo aircraft

Published: 8/11/1999

On August 7th 1999, Volga-Dnepr received a visit from its joint venture partner, Heavy Lift to examine the addition of more An-124s to its fleet. The delegation included Heavy Lift MD, Michael Hayles, Commercial Director Graham Pearce, Fahed Azima of the Aviation Leasing Group and a representative of the American Bank & Trust Co., F. Henke. The delegation, visited the aviation plant, Aviastar, which is a shareholder in Volga Dnepr, and met the Governor of the Ulyanovsk region, Yury Goryachev. Heavy Lift confirmed to Concise that it intends to provide funds to allow the completion of the two An-124 Ruslans currently sitting at Aviastar subject to a viability study reviewing the process of finishing the aircraft. The new aircraft will help, according to Volga-Dnepr, to increase the lift capacity of the joint venture in offering cargo services on the international market, as well as providing an order for Aviastar. The Director of Aviation Leasing Group, F. Azima, expressed an interest in the potential purchase of four PS-90 powered Tu-204s from Aviastar for cargo use in the Middle East and Africa. Graham Pearce of Heavy Lift told Concise however, that while they found the Tu-204 attractive, its lack of scheduled use outside of Russia still meant that they were reluctant to commit to the aircraft in the short term. He did however add that Heavy Lift had as much 'experience of operating Russian aircraft as anyone and if they could do it they would'.

Article ID: 749