Ruslan SALIS Programme Extended For 2 More Years

Konstantin Lushakov, the executive director of Antonov Airlines, told reporters in Kiev on Wednesday that the joint NATO/EU contract for provision of stategic airlift jointly by Antonov and Volga Dnepr is to be extended by 2 years.

Lushakov said that all outstanding issues would be resolved by November and the participants in the project that unites 18 countries as users of the aircraft had become convinced of the high efficiency of the An-124-100.

He didn't rule out that the plane might continue to be in high demand in the NATO and EU countries in the next 10 years.

Originally signed in March 2006, the SALIS contract calls for one Antonov and one Volga Dnepr aircraft to be available at the base in Leipzig at all times with four additional aircraft available at short notice. In practice up to three Ukrainian and two Russian planes have been used to airlift cargoes to a range of destinations including Afghanistan, Chad and Rwanda. The intensity of airlifts constantly increases.

In 2007, Ukrainian planes flew 1,370 hours under the SALIS programme and earned about 15m euros.

The Antonov Airlines and the Russian company Volga-Dnepr set up a joint venture Ruslan-SALIS on a parity basis in Germany in 2004 to implement the SALIS contract using An-124 aircraft contributed equally by the two companies.

More background on the Ukrainian view can be found in this earlier post.