February 20 - Volga-Dnepr Airlines has operated a series of AN-124-100 and IL-76TD-90VD charter flights to transport equipment for a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) production plant on the Yamal Peninsula in northwest Siberia.
deugro has already shipped over 700,000 tons (635,029 tonnes) of cargo to module yards in China and the project site in Russia for the Yamal project.
The airfreight part of the project commenced in 2016 with two IL-76TD-90VD flights from Frankfurt-Hahn Airport, Germany to Sabetta, Russia. The first flight carried 46 pieces weighing a total of 29 tons (26.3 tonnes), followed by a second shipment of 31 pieces totalling 17 tons (15.4 tonnes).
In November 2016, equipment destined for the LNG plant was transported by Volga-Dnepr's sister airline, AirBridgeCargo (ABC), on board its scheduled Boeing 747 freighter services from Singapore to Frankfurt, and from Shanghai Pudong Airport, China to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. From there the shipments were transported to port and continued their journey by sea.
The most recent flights included an IL-76TD-90VD out of Liege, Belgium and an AN-124-100 out of Dalian, China, both at the end of January 2017.
Tatyana Arslanova, vice president of strategic management and charter cargo operations at the Volga-Dnepr Group, commented: "These air services operated for deugro support a major ocean freight project carrying cargo consolidated in Europe to northwest Siberia."
In addition to organising various air charters in support of the project, deugro has managed a number of shipments by ocean to the remote, ice-bound Port of Sabetta through the Northern Sea Route. According to Volga-Dnepr, more flights are planned for 2017.
