Volga-Dnepr Airlines (VDA) brings UN peacekeeping force to Congo

Ulyanovsk, May 21, 2001. Volga-Dnepr Airlines (VDA), a Russian air company, has finalized a regular schedule of air cargo operations to bring the munitions of UN peacekeeping force to the African Continent. In the course of six weeks, the VDA An-124-100 "Ruslan" heavy lift aircraft kept on moving the cargo to the UN missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo from Morocco, Italy, RSA and Uruguay.

The airlift presented, practically, daily air cargo operations bringing the UN equipment and munitions to the airports of Kinshasa, Goma and Kisangany. As a result of these large-scale operations, approximately 1500 tones of cargo, including a large quantity of self-propelled vehicles, trucks and cars, were airlifted to the destination airports.

While handling the UN force's cars and jeeps, the Company applied its unique proprietary two-deck rigging, already known to many customers. Developed by the Engineering Department of the Company, the rigging enables the Operator to handle simultaneously up to 52 cars and/or jeeps, running no risk of their damage. As of today, Volga-Dnepr is the only operator in the world, capable of handling so many cars in one air cargo operation.

The program was carried out under the Cooperation Agreement, concluded between Volga-Dnepr Airlines and U.N.O in the year of 1992. In 1995, Volga-Dnepr Airlines was noted down into the Main Providers Register of U.N.O. According to the results of the year 2001, Volga-Dnepr Airlines became the largest service provider of this organization, having operated 70 global cargo flights to bring UN munitions and task forces to various destination airports.

Volga-Dnepr Airlines is the largest world operator of the An-124-100 "Ruslan" aircraft.

For further information, please contact:

PR Department

Volga-Dnepr Airlines

Phone: +7 095 245-57-93

Fax: +7 095 244-28-79

E-mail: Leon@msk.vda.ru