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Antonov makes an exception for Italy-Saudi move

[ March 24, 2023   //   ]

Ukraine-based Antonov Airlines moved quickly to move time-critical cargo from Italy and Belgium to Saudi Arabia on board of one of its AN-124-100 aircraft. The super heavy cargo specialist delivered 13 plant components at short notice to help minimise downtime at a petrochemical plant on behalf of its forwarder customer Deugro.  

The heat exchanger equipment totalled 811cu m volume and weighed a total weight of 252 tonnes and were transported in three flights within 7 days.

The first two flights from Italy to Saudi Arabia consisted of three packages weighing 86.8 and 71.5 tonnes respectively. The third flight contained three packages weighing 67.5t and was combined with an additional four packages weighing 26.4t loaded at Ostend-Bruges Airport.

Antonov Airlines commercial executive, Vladyslav Ishchuk, commented: “Due to dimensions of the heat exchanger modules, they could have only been transported with Antonov aircraft. However, after the start of the military conflict in Ukraine, which had dramatically impacted the heavy lift market and resulted in the loss of the AN-225 aircraft, the biggest challenge was to secure the required aircraft in time.”

However, Deugro’s long-standing relationship with Antonov Airlines` team allowed it to lock in the aircraft for the required dates, said Deugro  head of air chartering, Pavel Kuznetsov.

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