Volga-Dnepr set to expand its MRO capability

While foreign players are actively entering the Russian commercial MRO market, individual Russian providers are exploring business opportunities abroad. Russian MRO provider Volga-Dnepr Technics (VDT), part of Volga-Dnepr Group, has inaugurated a maintenance hangar facility at Leipzig/Halle airport. The hangar became operational on 16 January with its first job on an Antonov An-124 transport aircraft. Volga-Dnepr President Alexey Isaikin says his company’s plan is to turn Leipzig, which is already the second-largest freight airport in Germany, into а global cargo hub. VDT leases the new hangar from the airport; it will use the facility to provide MRO services both to its parent company and to third-party operators.

VTD holds an EASA Part 145 certificate to perform maintenance on Boeing 747-200, 747-300, 747-400, and 747-8 aircraft; the plan is to extend the certificate this year to cover the Boeing 737CL and 737NG narrowbodies and the Airbus A320 family. VTD expects to start offering maintenance up to C-check on Boeing 747s by late 2013; next year it should be capable of offering C-checks on Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 airliners.

The 8,500-square-meter hangar at Leipzig measures 94 by 90 meters and has a 30-meter-high ceiling. It can provide maintenance on An-124 Ruslans, Boeing 747-8s and, in the future, on Airbus A380s. The hangar accommodates a single An-124-100, Il-76TD, or Boeing 747 aircraft, or up to four Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 narrowbodies simultaneously. Abutting the hangar space are workshops and offices. Up to five An-124s or Boeing 747s can park simultaneously on apron outside the facility.