{"id":24257835,"date":"2026-09-23T15:07:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T13:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/antonov-airlines-volga-dnepr-an-124-charter-salis-leipzig\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T15:08:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T13:08:05","slug":"antonov-airlines-volga-dnepr-an-124-charter-salis-leipzig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/de\/antonov-airlines-volga-dnepr-an-124-charter-salis-leipzig\/","title":{"rendered":"The Charter Business Built on Soviet Freighters"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n\r\n<p>For twenty years, the way NATO moved something too big for its own aeroplanes was to ring a Ukrainian company and a Russian one.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>That sentence has aged badly, and the arrangement behind it is one of the stranger things the post-Cold-War world produced: a Western military alliance whose heavy airlift depended on a Soviet design, built in Ulyanovsk and Kyiv, operated by two competitors who agreed to market their aircraft as a single pool.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f8;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:18px 22px;margin:26px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:17px;color:#0d1117\">Quick Facts<\/p><table style=\"width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;font-size:15px;line-height:1.6\"><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>The two operators<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">Antonov Airlines (Ukraine) and Volga-Dnepr Airlines (Russia)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Ruslan International<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">Joint venture formed 2006 to market both fleets together; ended 31 December 2016<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>NATO SALIS<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">Strategic Airlift Interim Solution, running from March 2006<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>SALIS structure<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">Two An-124s kept ready at Leipzig\/Halle, four more available at six and nine days\u2019 notice<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>SALIS members<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">Eighteen countries, from Belgium and Canada to Sweden and the United Kingdom<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Volga-Dnepr<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">Withdrew from the NATO contract; later hit by sanctions and set for sale<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Stranded aircraft<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">Three An-124s and spares at Leipzig; one seized at Toronto Pearson since 2022<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Antonov Airlines today<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">Five An-124s at Leipzig\/Halle, average age just under 37 years<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>SALIS expiry<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0;color:#222\">Early 2030s<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Two airlines, one aeroplane<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>When the Soviet Union dissolved, the An-124 fleet split roughly along the border. Antonov, the design bureau in Kyiv, set up Antonov Airlines. Volga-Dnepr was founded in Ulyanovsk, where the Russian assembly line was.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Both discovered the same thing: there was a global market for flying objects that nothing else could carry, and they were the only two suppliers in it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;The Ruslan is the only freighter to carry cargoes up to 150 tons and 6.5 metres in diameter.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Volga-Dnepr Airlines<\/strong> &mdash; Company description of the An-124-100 fleet<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>In 2006 they stopped competing on availability and formed Ruslan International, a joint venture to market both fleets together. If you needed an An-124 next Tuesday, you no longer cared whose it was. That arrangement ran for a decade and was wound up at the end of 2016.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5FSyTuY1rGg\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Leipzig\/Halle, and the two aircraft on standby<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>The military version of the same deal is SALIS \u2014 the Strategic Airlift Interim Solution. Germany led it in the 2000s, and the word interim was doing real work: it was supposed to cover the gap until the A400M arrived.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Under the contract, two An-124s sit at Leipzig\/Halle in a ready state, one from each operator originally, with two more available at six days\u2019 notice and another two at nine. Eighteen NATO and EU countries can call on them. The aircraft proved indispensable in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the airport became the de facto European base of the type.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/volga-dnepr-an-124-nose-open-atlas-v-booster-offload.jpg\" alt=\"A Volga-Dnepr An-124 with the nose door open offloading an Atlas V booster\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A Volga-Dnepr An-124 offloading an Atlas V booster. United Launch Alliance needs two An-124 flights for every launch vehicle \u2014 one for the booster, one for the Centaur upper stage. Photo: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The commercial customers nobody thinks about<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Military work is the visible part. The commercial book is stranger and probably larger.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>United Launch Alliance moves Atlas V boosters from Decatur, Alabama to Cape Canaveral by An-124, and Atlas V and Centaur stages from Denver to both Canaveral and Vandenberg \u2014 two flights per launch vehicle. Space Systems Loral has flown satellites from Palo Alto to the spaceport at Kourou. SpaceX has moved payload fairings from Hawthorne to Florida the same way.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Outside space there are locomotives, metro railcars for Delhi, mining plant, power station components, the Obelisk of Axum going home to Ethiopia, a concrete pump flown to Japan to cool the reactors at Fukushima, and an 87,000-pound die tool rushed from Michigan to Nottingham so Ford could restart F-150 production after a factory fire.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CXU63mIMfuI\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/volga-dnepr-airlines-ra-82077-an-124-100-apron-haze.jpg\" alt=\"A Volga-Dnepr Airlines Antonov An-124-100 on the apron\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A Volga-Dnepr An-124-100. Three of the company\u2019s aircraft have sat at Leipzig\/Halle since 2022, unable to fly. Photo: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">And then February 2022<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Volga-Dnepr had already withdrawn from the NATO contract, reportedly ahead of anticipated American sanctions. After the invasion the position became absolute. Russian-operated An-124s could not fly in Western airspace at all.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Three of them are still at Leipzig\/Halle, along with a stock of spare parts, going nowhere. A fourth has been sitting at Toronto Pearson since 2022, caught on the ground when Canada closed its airspace. Volga-Dnepr Group has been reported as being put up for sale under the weight of sanctions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Antonov Airlines, meanwhile, lost an aircraft outright at Hostomel and diverted five more to Leipzig, where it now runs the European operation alone. Its aircraft carry slogans on the nose: <em>Be brave like Kharkiv<\/em>, <em>Be brave like Irpin<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7d7KHCPDuKo\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Interim, thirty years on<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>The fleet at Leipzig averages just under thirty-seven years old. The SALIS contract expires in the early 2030s. The European C-17s run out in the 2040s.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;The C-17 fleet operated by EU member states is expected to reach the end of its service life in the 2040s.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>EU member states<\/strong> &mdash; Defence cooperation paper on strategic airlift, quoted by aeroTELEGRAPH (translated)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>That is the whole predicament in one sentence. A capability described as interim in 2006 is now the only thing holding up European outsize airlift, it depends on aircraft built before most of their crews were born, and the company that used to supply half of it cannot legally fly.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sources: NATO SALIS programme documentation; Antonov Airlines; Volga-Dnepr Group; The Loadstar; Air Cargo News; aeroTELEGRAPH; European Defence Agency.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>Who operates the An-124 commercially?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Two airlines built the market: Antonov Airlines, the commercial arm of the Ukrainian design bureau, and Volga-Dnepr Airlines of Russia. Between them they flew almost every civil An-124 in service, and for a decade they marketed their fleets jointly.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What was Ruslan International?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">A joint venture formed in 2006 by Antonov Airlines and Volga-Dnepr to market their combined An-124-100 fleets as a single pool, so that customers could get an aircraft from whichever operator had one free. It was wound up on 31 December 2016.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What is NATO SALIS?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Strategic Airlift Interim Solution, a German-led arrangement under which NATO charters An-124 capacity rather than owning it. Two aircraft have been kept at Leipzig\/Halle in a ready state since March 2006, with four more available at six and nine days\u2019 notice.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Which countries use SALIS?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Eighteen: Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It was meant to be an interim measure until the A400M arrived.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why did Volga-Dnepr leave the NATO contract?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Reporting at the time attributed the withdrawal to anticipated additional US sanctions against Russia. Antonov Airlines continued its SALIS commitments. After 2022 the position became permanent, with Volga-Dnepr aircraft grounded in the West and the group reported as being put up for sale.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What happened to the stranded An-124s?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Three Russian-operated An-124s and a stock of spare parts remain at Leipzig\/Halle, unable to fly under sanctions. A fourth has been held at Toronto Pearson since 2022, after Canada closed its airspace to Russian aircraft while the aeroplane was on the ground.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What does the An-124 charter market actually carry?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Satellites and launch vehicles, including Atlas V boosters and Centaur upper stages for United Launch Alliance and payload fairings for SpaceX, plus locomotives, metro railcars, mining and power generation equipment, aircraft parts and disaster relief loads.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What happens when SALIS runs out?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">European governments have to decide whether to keep chartering, modernise the remaining An-124 fleet, or build something new. The contract expires in the early 2030s and the European Defence Agency published its options in September 2026, which is the first time the choice has been formally put to member states.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Who operates the An-124 commercially?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Two airlines built the market: Antonov Airlines, the commercial arm of the Ukrainian design bureau, and Volga-Dnepr Airlines of Russia. 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The contract expires in the early 2030s and the European Defence Agency published its options in September 2026, which is the first time the choice has been formally put to member states.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/why-nothing-can-replace-the-antonov-an-124-ruslan\/\">Why Nothing Can Replace the Antonov An-124<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/eda-esoca-study-an-124-modernisation-european-c-17-replacement-2026\/\">Europe\u2019s Airlift Gap: EDA Weighs An-124 Refit or a New C-17<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/explosive-drone-an-124-leipzig-halle-airport-2026\/\">A Bomb Drone Beside Europe\u2019s Cargo Giant<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For twenty years NATO moved its outsize cargo by ringing a Ukrainian airline and a Russian one. How that worked, what it carried, and what February 2022 did to it.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":24257581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24257835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The An-124 Charter Business: Antonov, Volga-Dnepr, SALIS | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How NATO ended up renting Soviet-designed freighters from a Ukrainian and a Russian airline \u2014 and what happened to the An-124 charter market after 2022.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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