Volga-Dnepr air group will reduce almost all Boeing pilots

The largest cargo group in Russia Volga-Dnepr due to sanctions will reduce more than 200 pilots in its subsidiaries AirbridgeCargo and A Atin, which flew on Boeing aircraft. This was reported by RBC with reference to two sources close to the company.

The interlocutor of the publication said that at the end of July the pilots received notifications of reducing their posts. It is noted that several crews decided to save in the event that the Ministry of Transport of Russia allows the air group to return the aircraft to foreign leasing companies. In early July, it became known that the Volga-Dnepr wants to return 14 of the 16 cargo Boeing 747, which are located at the Moscow Airport Sheremetyevo.

The company said that the optimization of the number of personnel is a "forced measure". At the same time, the air group does not disclose the total number of pilots who worked in subsidiaries. According to the source, at the beginning of 2022 there were more than 300 pilots in the AirbridgeCargo, and more than 110 in ATRAN.

To preserve the AirbridgeCargo and Atran business, Russian IL-76 and IL-96 are considered, sources in the company said.

In mid-March, the Volga-Dnepr press service said that Airbridgecargo and Atran, which fly only on foreign aircraft, suspended flights due to sanctions against lesslers who were banned from working with Russian companies, and statements by the Civil Aviation Management of Bermuda Islands (BCAA) on the termination of the validity period of flights.

The air groups were also affected by the EU sanctions: the ban on the sale of spare parts and the ban on the flights of Russian air carriers to Europe.

In addition, Boeing aircraft groups "Volga-Dnepr" were on the US sanctions list, and the UK imposed personal sanctions on its main owner Alexei Isaikin.

To save the business, management wanted to create a new enterprise in the CIS or in the Middle East, where he hoped to transfer some of the aircraft and transfer staff. Among the options, the possibility of cooperation with the ETIHAD group from the UAE was considered. “But nothing came out of this idea, lawyers [Etihad] studied this issue for a long time and, as a result, abandoned the joint project,” said the interlocutor of RBC.

The business of the Volga-Dnepr group was aimed at the global freight market. But since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the company's activities have declined sharply. According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, the group occupied half of the Russian air transportation market in January-February 2022. Then the airlines of the group totally transported almost 102 thousand tons of cargo. In mid -February, the group of the group had 11 Russian aircraft and 27 Boeing. Since March, the Federal Air Transport Agency has not published statistics.