The launch customer for the Ilyushin Il-96-400T pure freighter was announced at the Paris airshow yesterday.
AirBridge Cargo, the scheduled freight airline set up by Russia's VolgaDnepr Group last year, has ordered two of the aircraft on 15-year leases. The deal was signed on the Ilyushin stand by Volga Dnepr Group president Alexey Isiakin and Ilyushin Finance's general director Alexander Roubtsov.
The deal is likely to lead to more Il-96-400T orders from AirBridge, says vice-president Stan Wraight. "This will be a core aircraft for us, and I could see us getting to six or eight aircraft."
The Il-96-400, which is has a fuselage stretched to 63.94m (210ft), complies with all current and planned future European noise regulations, Wraight adds.
The first freighter will be delivered in January 2007 and the second will follow "within two or three months", Wraight says. They will complement AirBridge's current fleet of two Boeing 747-200Fs and one 747-300F and will be used to open up new cargo routes to India and Southeast Asia from AirBridge's hubs at Moscow and Krasnoyarsk in eastern Russia.
With a lower payload than the 747 (86t against 110t) they will augment rather than replace the 747s.
Source: Flight Daily News
