Antonov Airlines, the division of Antonov State Enterprise (Kyiv), in January-November 2017 increased commercial transportation by 26% compared with entire 2016.
The press service of the state-owned enterprise reported that total flight hours were 4,823 hours in January-November 2017, while in 2016 the figure was 3,832 hours.
“In the past three months, Antonov flew 2,120 hours, while the Russian Volga-Dnepr airline, which has a larger number of aircraft, flew 1,786. That is, Ukrainian aircraft carried more cargo, received more profits and paid more taxes in the country’s budgets of all levels. This was made possible by the termination of cooperation in this area with the Russian company Volga-Dnepr, which since 2006, using the conditions of an “enslaving” contract with Antonov, was a monopolist in the market of air transportation by An-124 Ruslan aircraft,” the enterprise said.
According to the press service of the State Enterprise Antonov, under this agreement, the Russian Volga-Dnepr carried out all the logistics management, using Antonov planes and independently, at its discretion, distributing profits, the bulk of which remained in the Russian Federation.
“But at the end of 2016, Antonov implemented a program to end this cooperation. To this end, Antonov Salis GmbH was involved in the participation of the Ukrainian company in the NATO program – SALIS and Dreamlifts Ltd, to provide logistics support for commercial transportation,” the enterprise said in response to the publication of information about the doubtfulness of the above-mentioned companies in media.
In addition, taking into account the NATO tender conditions for the conclusion of the contract to transport cargos under the SALIS program, Antonov created Antonov Salis GmbH, which is part of the enterprise.
“At the same time, the legal mechanism for the creation of Antonov Salis GmbH to ensure the participation of Antonov State Enterprise in the tender was agreed with the relevant structures of the Alliance. Precisely thanks to the fulfillment of all the tender requirements, a year ago, NATO signed a contract in the interests of Antonov State Enterprise. All payments to the Antonov Salis GmbH account via transit payment are transferred to the Antonov payment account in Ukraine, which are declared as transit payments and they are under the control of the Federal Bank of Germany,” Antonov State Enterprise said, adding that in these circumstances Antonov Salis GmbH acts effectively in the status of non-profit enterprises, exempted from paying value added tax in accordance with EU Directives as a service provider for the needs of NATO.
“Dreamlifts Ltd, the British company, is an agent company, without which international commercial air transportation around the world is impossible. The attraction of these companies is the usual and long-term practice of the absolute majority of world-class air carriers. The main feature of Dreamlifts Ltd is that its specialists are citizens of the European Union. After the Russian aggression, they no longer wanted to work for Ruslan International – another child of the Russian Volga-Dnepr airline. It was officially announced in the media over a year ago, on November 21, 2016,” the enterprise said.
The press service said that Antonov will continue to exert maximum efforts in deepening cooperation with NATO, working on the international air transportation market and creating new aircraft in the interests of Ukraine.
Source: Interfax
