OREANDA-NEWS. September 18, 2012. Ruslan SALIS demonstrated its airlift capabilities as part of SALIS Project and other services at ILA 2012. The event held on 14 September was attended by air show participants, invited guests and media representatives.

As part of his introduction, Ildar Ilyasov, Deputy Managing Director Operations of Ruslan SALIS, offered the guests a presentation illustrating the company’s activities and achievements. By performing a whole range of functions — operations, sales, finance and aircraft maintenance — the company makes a significant contribution: it supports counter-terrorism, peace-keeping and humanitarian missions around the world with strategic airlift capabilities. Over the years the company has been operating in Europe effectively serving interests of NSPA (NATO Support Agency), it carried around 138,000 tonnes of various cargoes.

According to Ildar Ilyasov, availability of a fleet of An-124-100 unique ramp freighters, combined with specialist cargo handling technology, enables carriage of most extraordinary cargoes with a high level of service quality. Moreover, as Mr. Ilyasov stressed, positioning of Ruslan SALIS airplanes in Central Europe makes customers able to manage their airlift budgets more efficiently. Key parties to SALIS Project are Germany, France and United Kingdom.

Ruslan SALIS GmbH is a 50/50 joint venture set up by Volga-Dnepr Group (Russia) and Antonov Design Bureau (Ukraine) in 2004 in Leipzig, Germany, specifically to support SALIS Project. The company is the winner of international tender for provision of airlift services in support of counter-terrorism, peace-keeping and humanitarian missions worldwide. Presently, 14 European nations are parties to SALIS (Strategic Airlift Interim Solution) Project. Since October 2006, Ruslan SALIS has been operating as a full-fledged maintenance base for An-124-100. With the launch of this up-to-date maintenance facility, the two airlines have been able to further improve their service levels and better attend to the needs of their customers.