RA-93913

On the 20th of September 2007, while I was at Moscow’ Domodedovo airport, I saw a turboprop Antonov 12 Freighter registered RA-93913 of air company “ATRAN” starting at the horizon a long smoky taking-off roll to finally painfully climb in the Moscow sky with this typical noisy sound of heavy hornet toward a Northern Russia destination or heading to an Eastern Ural goal.

Now 3 years later in 2010, ATRAN still exists, the RA-93913 is still flying as hundreds of others Antonov 12, 24 and 26, carrying goods in Russia and CIS countries, operated by dozens of small operators.

When Russian outsize air cargo companies Volga-Dnepr Airlines and Polet Cargo are successful by chartering worldwide heavy jet-powered giants freighters with their fleet of Antonov 124 “Ruslan” and smaller Illyushin-76 and the newly prosperous Russian Air Bridge Cargo with a fleet of 8 Boeing 747 Freighters flying on regular scheduled basis between Europe and Asia via Moscow and Krasnoyarsk, these vintage Antonov turboprops still represent a vital link in Russia freight carriage.

Are they the last adventurers and fortune-hunter of the air in Eastern Europe when globally all the cargo aircraft tend to become manufactured by the efficient but boring to watch, Boeing and Airbus?

We must go back to the 90s.

Since this period, air traffic inside the borders of CIS countries has grown very little since the mid-1990s and the domestic air cargo flows hold stable.

Between 1990 and 1992, domestic Russia and intra-CIS air cargo fell by 72% when activity went down dramatically during the breakup of the Soviet Union. At the same time, international air cargo traffic increased significantly as CIS based carriers shifted their efforts to meet strong local demand for foreign consumer goods, especially electronics and clothes.

During the five years following the breakup (from 1992 to 1997), CIS international air cargo traffic more than quadrupled and domestic traffic remained flat. The Ruble crisis of August 1998, weakened the Russian purchasing power, and, as a result, regional domestic traffic fell by 25% that year.

Expansion in the oil, natural gas, and mining industries in several CIS states helped to drive a strong domestic air cargo growth of 11% per year between 1998 and 2003. More recently, high jet fuel prices and improved surface transport (trucking and rail) have resulted to restrain the growth in domestic air cargo.

Domestic air trader remains a vital part of commerce in the development of these States, particularly in Russia. The vast distances and the still relatively underdeveloped surface transportation links, often necessitate the use of aircraft to move goods and industrial materials. In 2007, Russia’s airlines transported about 270,600 tonnes on domestic routes.

Besides Moscow, cities commanding a large volume of domestic air freight include St. Petersburg in western Russia and far cities across Siberia and Russia’s Far East, including Mirny and Norilsk (mining), Vladivostok, Krasnoyarsk, and Khabarovsk.

During all those years, inexorably, these vital transport flows, domestically and internationally, were provided mostly by these classics Antonov smoky aircraft.

These military-design freighters will remain essential to regional air trade.

But why a large proportion of CIS-related air trade is still carried on former Soviet military turboprop and jet-powered aircraft?

These aircraft are typically rear-ramp loaders that require minimal ground support equipment.
And this characteristic is crucial in the more remote regions of the CIS, where airport infrastructures are often lacking.

The combined effects of an important availability of used military aircraft, of low acquisition costs, and the lack of airport infrastructures investments will keep Antonov’s in CIS fleets for a long period.

However, recent fuel price increases have made these aircraft expensive to operate in most
international markets. Beside that, several other factors will contribute to the introduction of more purpose-built civilian freighters into CIS fleets:

- ICAO Chapter 3 noise regulations and emission regulations that have been in effect since April 1, 2002.

- New CO2 emission regulations


Approximately 400 CIS-built freighters are located in the region and can carry a payload of 15 tonnes or more. Of these freighters, about 230 are airworthy and serving civilian air freight markets.

As we have said in the introduction, the use of military aircraft has also allowed certain CIS cargo carriers to become the unique providers of outsize transport capacity in world air freight market.

Outsize air cargo is too large or too heavy for a classic civilian freighters aircraft. A select group of carriers in Russia and Ukraine use very large ramp-loading freighter aircraft to serve this particular sector, which accounts for nearly 114,000 tonnes of freight annually worldwide.

It should be highlighted that most of the outsize cargo traffic does not originate or terminate in the CIS.

Most outsize carriers fly charters, transporting industrial shipments between Europe, North
America and Asia. Typical industries served by these carriers include oil and gas extraction, aerospace manufacturing, electrical power generation, entertainment, and infrastructure development.

These carriers also have transported materiel in support of the NATO Afghanistan.


It appears for that reason that the heavy freighters future growth previsions seem optimistic and bright.

According to experts, the outsize cargo market is developing more quickly than the scheduled cargo market, at 9% annually. While the total market for outsize freight was at $0.7 billion in 2007, which was 1.7% of the total global cargo market, it is projected to reach $3 billion by 2020 and $7 billion by 2030.

Russia is the leader in this segment, having 75% of the market share. That’s why the resumption of the Antonov 124 production has been decided and has received the official support in November 2009, of Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev.

During his visit of the Aviastar factory in Ulyanovsk, the Russian President got on board an Antonov 124 and confessed his opinion: “The market is huge, the cargo traffic is great, and meanwhile few similar freighters are available worldwide. Someone is going to fill the gap. Better to engage our domestic enterprise; we could do it in cooperation with the US”.

Effectively, the potential AN-124 rivals (the American С-5, С-17 and the European А400М) are still far and underdeveloped for civil purposes. In such conditions, the international market can annually accept from two up to five new Antonov 124 freighters with a total demand growing up to more than 50 units in the nearest decade.

The same trend is observed with the Illyushin 76. This heavy ramp freighter has been one of the most robust and demanded cargo aircraft over the last twenty years by both Russian and few foreign air cargo carriers in the world. This is the only commercial aircraft in the 30- 50 tonnes niche capable of moving oversized freight to almost any airfield in the world.

Its ability to operate in airports which are lacking of infrastructures, to disenclave entire regions and to significantly expand the customer’s base by attracting forwarders which would normally use other transportation modes, has made urgent and necessary an upgrade of this brilliant aircraft and the engines.

In January, 2006 the newly upgraded and refurbished IL-76TD-90VD receives a noise certificate in accordance with the ICAO Chapter 4 Annex 16 requirements and has been released after a series of test flights at the Chkalov-TAPO (Tashkent Aircraft Factory) flight test-center in Tashkent (Uzbekistan).

Russian turboprop cargo aircraft and heavy jet-powered freighters have nice days remaining ahead…


Shanwick Project’s

Sources: Kommersant Magazine (RU)
And Logistics overlook sur le Web
+ données personnelles gardées de Moscou

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