VLADIMIR KARNOZOV / MOSCOW
Ex-Japan Airlines aircraft will replace Ilyushin Il-76s and be based at Frankfurt Hahn
Aeroflot Russian Airlines has put the first of four McDonnell Douglas DC-10-40 freighters into service, as part of a move to revamp and grow its cargo business.
The plan involves the withdrawal of its 11 Ilyushin Il-76 freighters, and the introduction of four ex-Japan Airlines DC-10-40s on lease from Irish leasing company Ten Forty. The second DC-10 will be delivered in May, with the third in October and fourth in March next year. The airline concluded the deal for up to 10 DC-10s, including six options, earlier this year.
The airline, which had been leasing a DC-10-30F from Boeing until earlier this year, aims to operate the type until the implementation of International Civil Aviation Organisation Chapter 4 noise legislations in Europe, expected in 2006. Aeroflot and Atlant-Soyuz hold letters of intent with Ilyushin for its planned Aviadvigatel PS-90A-powered version of the Il-96T - the Il-96-400T, which has an 86t payload. The type could replace the DC-10s in the longer term.
Aeroflot deputy general director Igor Desyatnichenko says the aircraft will be based at Frankfurt Hahn Airport in Germany, because Russian approval for the DC-10 acquisition was only for use outside the country. It does have rights to refuel at Russian airports.
Each DC-10 is expected to generate a profit of $3 million a month, primarily on services from Norway to Japan, carrying frozen fish. The fleet will also be flown from Hahn, London and Norway to Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai and Seoul.
Only four of Aeroflot's 11 Il-76s remain operational, and these will be retired and sold to other Russian companies at the end of the year. "We are moving further from the charter market, which dominates the Il-76 operations, to regular time tabled flights for which the DC-10 is far better suited," says Desyatnichenko.
Aeroflot is hiving off its cargo services into a separate business with its own management and accounting as it strives to more than double its freight traffic. The airline carried 100,000t last year (of which 60% was belly cargo), and this will grow to 127,000t this year and to 240,000t over the next five years.
Aeroflot is also planning to launch its own express delivery service later this year with Garant-Post door-to-door parcel company.
Source: Flight International
