VOLGA-DNEPR AIRLINES CONTINUES AID TO AFGHANISTAN

Ulianovsk (Russia), May 14, 2002. As part of the ongoing humanitarian aid airlift to Afghanistan Volga-Dnepr Airlines has started transporting a Czechoslovakian modular hospital and its equipment to Kabul. The airline's An-124-100s will also ship ambulances to Afghanistan. Czechoslovakia and its government is focused on humanitarian operations in Afghanistan. The country's top officials, led by Vaclav Gavel, the Czech president, were present at Prague airport to see the first flight to Kabul take off.

The transportation of the Czech hospital continues the humanitarian mission began by the members of the international anti-terrorist coalition at the end of 2001. Having performed the flight to Bagram late in 2001 Volga-Dnepr was the first civil airline to fly to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. To date, under contracts with United Nations, the World Food Programme and several national governments of the coalition, the company's An-124-100s and Il-76s have carried out more than 200 flights to Bagram and Kabul. This work is ongoing.

Volga-Dnepr Airlines is the world leader in the outsize air cargo market and has nine An-124-100 airliners in its fleet. In the first quarter of 2002 Volga-Dnepr's sales volume totaled almost $47 million, the airline controls 52% of the market.