Antonov Airlines

Antonov Airlines

IATA - ICAO ADB Callsign ANTONOV BUREAU
Founded
Hubs	Gostomel Airport
Fleet size	22
Destinations	5
Parent company	Antonov ASTC
Headquarters	Kiev, Ukraine
Key people	Yuri Zekolev (owner[citation needed])
Website	www.antonov.com

Antonov Airlines (a division of the Antonov ASTC) is a Ukrainian cargo airline. It operates international charter services in the world oversized cargo market. Its main base is Gostomel Airport near Kiev. The company uses the only existing Antonov An-225, the world's largest operating aircraft, among its fleet.

History

Antonov Airlines An-74T at landing at Hostomel Airport, Ukraine.

The airline was established and started operations in 1989 through a marketing agent agreement with Air Foyle to market Antonov An-124 Ruslan cargo charters worldwide. This relationship ended in June 2006. The same month Antonov Airlines and another large player in the global specialty air cargo business, Volga-Dnepr Airlines (Russia), established a joint venture company — Ruslan International — where each company has a 50% stake. The joint operation of the Ukrainian and Russian fleets allow to maximize the utilization of the combined An-124-100 commercial fleet (seven freighters belong to Antonov Airlines and ten are owned by Volga-Dnepr Airlines) and the only existing Antonov An-225 — the largest cargo aircraft in the world.

Among the most notable cargo delivered by Antonov Airlines are the following:

• An 88 ton water turbine for the Tashtakumska Hydroelectric Plant from Kharkov to Tashkent;
• Civil engineering vehicles to deal with the consequences of the earthquake in Spitak, Armenia;
• Vehicles and systems for resolving the Persian Gulf crisis (mine clearance bulldozers, mobile electric stations, special mine, and oil-clearing boats, humanitarian assistance);
• A 135.2 ton Siemens generator from Düsseldorf, Germany to Delhi, India was air-lifted by An-225;
• Nuclear fuel in special containers from Habaniya, Iraq to Yekaterinburg (Russia) under the United Nations program for disarmament of Iraq;
• A 102 ton locomotive from London, Canada to Dublin, Ireland;
• A 70 ton generator was flown to Lahore, Pakistan from Doncaster Robin Hood, United Kingdom for power station needs;
• A 187.6 ton power plant generator from Frankfurt-Hahn Airport, Germany to Yerevan (listed in the Guinness Book of Records)
• A 95 ton Putzmeister concrete pump from the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport to Japan to assist with the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant

Destinations

International

• Calgary, Canada (An-124)
• Edmonton, Canada (An-124, An-225)
• Athens, Greece (An-124)
• Kabul, Afghanistan (An-124)
• Istanbul, Turkey (An-124, An-225)
• Amsterdam, Netherlands (An-225)
• Eindhoven, Netherlands (An-225)
• Luxembourg (An-225)
• São Paulo, Brazil (An-124, An-225)
• Salvador, Brazil (An-124)
• Recife, Brazil (An-124)
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (An-124)
• Buenos Aires, Argentina (An-124)
• Vancouver, Canada (An-124)
• Winnipeg, Canada (An-124)
• Malta International Airport, Malta (An-124)
• Prestwick Airport, Scotland (An-124)

Fleet

Currently the airline's fleet consist of:

Antonov-225 at Gostomel Airport (Antonov airport), Ukraine

Antonov An-140 at Gostomel, Ukraine, 2008

An-124-100 kneeling with front ramp down (note tilt of aircraft fuselage and retraction of front wheels)

Antonov An-22 "Antaeus"

• 1 Antonov An-225 Mriya (shared with the Antonov Design Bureau)
• 7 Antonov An-124-100 Ruslan
• 1 Antonov An-22 Antaeus
• 3 Antonov An-12
• 1 Antonov An-26
• 1 Antonov An-74

Antonov Airlines also operates the following aircraft for the Antonov Design Bureau:

• 1 Antonov An-28 (Antonov Design Bureau)
• 1 Antonov An-32 (Antonov Design Bureau)
• 3 Antonov An-140 (Antonov Design Bureau)
• 2 Antonov An-148 (Antonov Design Bureau)

External links

• Antonov Airlines