Hopes for heavy lift

The plans to resume production of the giant Antonov An-124 Ruslan transport aircraft in Russia may never be implemented. The Russian Air Force, which was previously viewed as the potential launch customer, has not yet made up its mind, while commercial operators are looking for alternative options to set up an assembly line for the heavy-lifter.

Some Russian media in January 2013 cited Alexey Isaikin, head of the largest An-124 commercial operator Volga-Dnepr Group, as saying his company was considering the possibility of launching Ruslan assembly outside Russia. The airline would like the newly built An-124s to have Western avionics and engines. Isaikin mentioned Leipzig as a possible location. Volga-Dnepr Group’s subsidiary Volga-Dnepr Technics opened an 8,500-square-meter MRO hangar at Leipzig/Halle Airport this January to provide maintenance services on heavy transport aircraft such as the An-124-100, the Ilyushin Il-76TD and the Boeing 747. According to Isaikin, the facility was built due to the lack of progress in the airline’s protracted negotiations with Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) over a possible resumption of An-124 production at the Aviastar-SP plant in Ulyanovsk.