VOLGA-DNEPR AIRLINES CELEBRATES 12TH ANNIVERSARY

Moscow (Russia), August 22, 2002. On August 22 Volga-Dnepr Airlines celebrates its 12th anniversary. In 1990 Volga-Dnepr was registered as the first non-government cargo airline in Russia and the first joint-stock company in the Ulyanovsk region.

Antonov An-124-100 commercial operations formed a new segment on the world air cargo market - outsize and superheavy loads. In 2001 Volga-Dnepr maintained its market leadership retaining 52% of the market.

Major achievements of Volga-Dnepr Airlines in the last year have included operations into Afghanistan on United Nations humanitarian and peacekeeping missions; an increase in total sales volume on the An-124-100 services market and concluding a loan agreement with International Finance Corporation to complete and buy a new modernised An-124-100M, currently in build at the Aviastar-SP factory.

Apart from the core business - international air cargo - Volga-Dnepr continues to expand its passenger segment. The airline now has two scheduled services using Yakovlev Yak-40 aircraft, linking Ulyanovsk, its home town, with Moscow (daily) and Nizhny Novgorod, the capital of Povolzhye Federal district (three times a week). Volga-Dnepr also maintains passenger services to Russia's Black Sea resorts of Sochi and Gelendjik in the summer season.

Volga-Dnepr successfully promotes services which are not directly connected with aviation. A road transport company, Volga-Trucks, and the International Linguistic Teaching Centre, which are companies of the Volga-Dnepr Group, have also showed excellent results and maintain leading positions in their respective markets.

"We have shown that we can work successfully. Results for the first half of 2002 have proved our indisputable leadership in the market. We forecast that 2002 will be the most successful year in the airline's history", said Vladimir Davydov, Volga-Dnepr Airlines General Director. "But the most important achievement for us is our highly professional personnel. Today we put great store in our young specialists and pay great attention to them taking study courses and higher qualification programmes. A Corporate College that we established this year has already showed positive results and is revealing the hidden resources of our personnel".

From starting operations with one leased aircraft, Volga-Dnepr today has a fleet of nine An-124-100s, an Ilyushin Il-76 and four Yak-40s performing cargo and passenger flights. Presently Volga-Dnepr Group has an international staff of over 1,000 specialists, working in three continents.