VOLGA-DNEPR COMPLETES MOVEMENT OF 560 TONNES OF UNITED NATIONS' PEACEKEEPING EQUIPMENT TO LIBERIA

Volga-Dnepr, the world's leading outsize and heavyweight cargo airline, has completed a series of eight Antonov 124-100 flights delivering 560 tonnes of equipment and supplies for United Nations' peacekeeping forces in Liberia, Africa.

The airline co-ordinated the delivery programme in support of the UN Security Council resolution to send a peacekeeping force to Liberia. The UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations is managing a major operation in the African state with a force of approximately 15,000 troops and 900 civilian policemen.

Volga-Dnepr operated the eight flights over a 19-day period from Manila in The Philippines, Kathmandu in Nepal, Dacca in Bangladesh and Monrovia. The 560 tonnes of cargo included shipments of jeeps, trucks, building and heavy-wheeled equipment, ammunition and containers of peacekeepers' personal belongings.

The project was overseen by one of Volga-Dnepr's experienced team of loadmasters, working alongside the airline's freight forwarder partner in the United Nations' programme to co-ordinate operations and maximise the available AN-124 capacity.

The successful completion of the flight programme extends Volga-Dnepr's working relationship with the UN in support of major humanitarian cargo transportation projects. In August, it was the first Russian airline to resume flights to Liberia under the UN Security Council mandate.

Since 1992, the Volga-Dnepr Group of companies has been constantly participating in peacekeeping and humanitarian missions worldwide.

The airline received official UN carrier status in 1994. A year later it was included in the register of major suppliers of aviation services to the UN and today enjoys close co-operation with the various UN organisations on projects that involve the transportation of humanitarian cargo in various regions of the world.

Under a strategic development plan, Volga-Dnepr is today an international group of companies with offices and subsidiaries all over the world, including the UK, USA, China, Ireland and the UAE.

Volga-Dnepr is the world's leading outsize and heavyweight cargo airline and operates a fleet of nine AN-124s, two IL-76s and five Yak-40s. Today, the Group employs over 1,300 people worldwide.