The Moscow headquartered transport company, best known for their fleet of mighty AN-124 freighters, have decided to terminate their Ruslan Salis commitment. This reported by
Cargoforwarder.eu.
Cargoforwarder.eu.
By quitting the Strategic Airlift Interim Solution contract, they no longer carry any military equipment or humanitarian goods on behalf of most NATO and EU states as has been the case since the inception of Leipzig, Germany-based Salis in 2006. But the decision could be part of a big poker game between the Russian capacity provider and western countries.
Volga-Dnepr’s decision to quit SALIS doesn’t come unexpectedly, seen against the background of increasing tensions between Russia and western countries over Syria and other conflicting issues. In a message sent to the SALIS steering Board on 12 April, Volga-Dnepr Airlines has announced their intention to exit the deal. In spite of intense negotiations following the company’s SALIS notification, their contractual western partners could not motivate them to abandon their planned exit.
Officially, Volga-Dnepr told their counterparts that a decision had been taken by their headquarters to no longer carry any military equipment but focus on transporting civilian, humanitarian and commercial goods instead for which their western public clients have little demand.
During the SALIS negotiations, the carrier’s management indicated that its decision is also based on the 2017 signed Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which imposed new sanctions on North Korea, Russia and Iran. Further the V-D side pointed out that the U.S. Transportation Command, awarding special airlift missions on behalf of the Washington administration had ended their relationship with Volga-Dnepr in 2015, despite roughly 13,000 flights operated by the Russian company for U.S. Transcom between 2002 and 2014 to the satisfaction of the client.
During the SALIS negotiations, the carrier’s management indicated that its decision is also based on the 2017 signed Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which imposed new sanctions on North Korea, Russia and Iran. Further the V-D side pointed out that the U.S. Transportation Command, awarding special airlift missions on behalf of the Washington administration had ended their relationship with Volga-Dnepr in 2015, despite roughly 13,000 flights operated by the Russian company for U.S. Transcom between 2002 and 2014 to the satisfaction of the client.
After Volga-Dnepr’s SALIS exit, the uplift capacity of large aircraft NATO and EU can make use of is sharply reduced, from 2,300 hours per year to 900h, guaranteed by the AN-124F fleet of Ukrainian operator Antonov Airlines. How SALIS will compensate the loss of V-D capacity for maintaining the strategic global transport tasks asked for by EU and NATO has not been answered so far, since western-built large freighters are not fit for operating at airports that do not provide adequate loading and unloading equipment. It also remains to be seen what the future of Volga-Dnepr’s Leipzig, Germany-based large maintenance facility will be or if it has any perspective at all
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