MOSCOW. Feb 15 (Interfax-AVN) - The Volga-Dnieper Airlines, Russia's leader in aerial transportation of large-size and extra- heavy cargo, is planning to purchase more AN-124-100 heavy transport planes from the Aviastar aircraft plant based in Ulyanovsk, Volga-Dnieper Director General Alexei Isaikin said on Friday.
The airline is planning to sign an agreement with Aviastar on completion of one AN-124-100 plane this year, Isaikin told Interfax-Military News Agency. Aviastar is currently assembling three aircraft of that type. After June, the airline management is expected to resume talks with Aviastar on the purchase of another AN-124-100.
The price of the AN-124-100 planes being completed in Ulyanovsk is several times lower than the price of the planes to be built from scratch. Purchase of more planes is only possible for Volga-Dnieper if the demand for cargo transportation grows dramatically in the world.
Otherwise, the airline will consider purchasing AN-124 planes decommissioned by the military transport aviation and their upgrade at Aviastar. The restoration costs are roughly equal to the price of an AN-124-100 being completed by the Ulyanovsk plant, Isaikin said.
Speaking about the aircraft to be purchased in the future, he noted that the airline had had plans to acquire IL-96-400T transport planes, "but acquisition of such planes is not planned at the moment due to difficulties that the Voronezh aircraft plant is going through."
The airline is also interested in the AN-70T transport. The IL-76MF plane, being quite expensive, will not pay off given the current tariffs on cargo transportation by IL-76 Candid planes and the state of the global aerial transportation market.
First, it is needed to modernize the only IL-76 in the airline's inventory and after that to start purchasing new planes, Isaikin said.
Volga-Dnieper invested several million U.S. dollars in modernization of the aircraft in its inventory in 2001, the director general noted.