The manufacturing of the giant military cargo plane Antonov An-124 'Ruslan' can be resumed only under a contract with a major customer, i.e. the state, United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) President Alexei Fyodorov said.
“A decision on resuming [the plane’s] production can be made only if
there is a major starting contractor. Only a state can act as such,”
Fyodorov told journalists at the MAKS 2009 international airshow in
Zhukovsky outside Moscow on Thursday.
Private airlines are also interested in this aircraft, but they cannot be major contractors, he said.
The resumption of the An-124’s manufacturing would be a challenging
decision that the UAC cannot make on its own, Fyodorov said. “Very
large investments are needed to make a decision on resuming the
An-124’s serial production,” he said.
