AirBridgeCargo did not receive Il-96 to resume flights after a year of inactivity

The cargo airline AirBridgeCargo (part of the Volga-Dnepr group) has not yet been able to receive Il-96-400T aircraft from the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC). At the end of March, Volga-Dnepr announced that it expected to receive the first such aircraft in June and start flights to China at the same time. According to the source RBC, close to the leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co. (part of the UAC), the contract for the supply of AirBridgeCargo aircraft was not concluded, as the company made “a relatively small security deposit that is subject to return.”

The representative of Volga-Dnepr in a commentary to RBC confirmed the lack of supplies. The representative of the UAC said that the work is proceeding according to schedule, the aircraft are undergoing the procedure for restoring their airworthiness, one of them is in a high degree of readiness and is being prepared for transfer to one of the Russian operators. The KLA declined to comment on whether the contract for the supply of aircraft was never concluded.

According to RBC’s source, Ilyushin Finance Co. started negotiations with other potential operators on possible deliveries. The CEO of Red Wings (owned by UAC and Rostec) Yevgeny Solodilin said earlier this week that he had applied to the UAC with a request to hand over the Il-96 aircraft.

AirBridgeCargo occupied 42% of the Russian air cargo market. She stopped flying in March 2022 due to sanctions. AirBridgeCargo’s fleet then consisted only of foreign-made aircraft, it had 17 Boeing 747s and one Boeing 777.

How the aviation market survived the sanctions – in the material “Kommersant” “Minus nine overboard”.

Leonid Uvarchev