MOSCOW. Nov 16 (Interfax-AVN) - Resuming the joint An-124 mass production will boost positions of the Russian and Ukrainian air carriers in the international air freight market, Antonov Company Designer General Dmitry Kiva said.
"A success of the joint venture will open new vistas," Kiva said in an interview with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper, published on Thursday.
He said that the decision to resume the joint Russian-Ukrainian An-124 program was the only correct one, since the project was likely to be one of the largest and most successful in the modern history of aircraft industry.
Kiva pointed out that the An-124-100 was the world's largest mass produced air transport, boasting unrivalled capabilities. "The aircraft created a whole new freight market sector - air industrial logistics. The sector enjoys an annual growth of 8-10%, and, according to experts, will need at least 50 new An-124 by 2030," Kiva said.