Russia’s Volga-Dnepr Expands Business Profile

Changes in its relationship with Russia have prompted Volga-Dnepr to pursue new opportunities.

As the operator of Antonov’s mammoth An-124, Volga-Dnepr cornered the market for many oversize cargo missions. Among its customers is Lockheed Martin, which contracted the giant freighter to carry a full-size mockup of its F-35 fighter to airshows.

June 15, 2019

Russian specialized cargo and charter airline Volga-Dnepr has been a permanent fixture in the commercial air services community since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The company was formed in August 1990 in the waning days of the USSR, originally as a cooperative venture between the Aviastar aircraft production plant in Ulyanovsk, Russia, and the Ukrainian firms directly involved with production of the Antonov An-124 Ruslan cargo heavy lifter. These were the Aviant plant in Kiev and the Motor Sich production plant and co-located Ivchenko/Progress design bureau in Zaparozhye.

From the time of Volga-Dnepr's first successful commercial cargo flight in October 1991, the company was known as the operator of the An-124. There were 12 of these aircraft in the fleet of the Russian half of the partnership, and the company was known as almost the only option for those customers looking to move unique or outsized cargo shipments. Among customers in years past was Lockheed Martin, which occasionally used the An-124 to transport a pre-production era full-scale flight line mockup of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

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