Volga-Dnepr’s IL-76TD-90VD freighter delivers drilling machine to mining project in India

September 23, 2017: Volga-Dnepr’s IL-76TD-90VD freighter helped Air Charter Service to ensure the quick and cost efficient transportation of a 27-tonne outsize drilling machine from Perth, Australia, to a mining project in India.

Destined for Ahmedabad, the largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat, the sensitive piece of mining equipment measured over 15 metres in length and was more than three metres high. Experts from Volga-Dnepr’s Cargo Planning Centre created a special loading plan to ensure the safe positioning of the machinery into the IL-76TD-90VD’s cargo cabin, taking into account the minimal clearance between the height of the shipment and the aircraft’s rear loading door. The drilling machine was pulled into the aircraft using the IL-76TD-90VD’s onboard winches.

Shahvez Jafary, commercial director ACS India, said, “Weeks of planning went into the charter and we worked very closely with the Volga-Dnepr loadmaster on the day to make sure that the awkward-shaped drilling machine was loaded with the minimum of fuss. Our client had initially asked for AN-124 to move their cargo, but we saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars by suggesting Volga-Dnepr’s IL-76.”

Volga-Dnepr Airlines is a regular provider of air logistics solutions for the global mining industry. One of its other projects this year involved a series of more than 20 IL-76TD-90VD flights to North Baffin in Canada, delivering trucks and trailers to help a leading Canadian mining company increase its iron ore production quota in 2017.