The receiving-passing testing of IL-76TD-90VD aircraft produced at Tashkent Aircraft Production Corporation named after Chkalov (TAPOiCh) on the order of the Volga-Dnepr Group was started on 31 July. This is the second aircraft of this type. It will join the Group’s fleet in the third quarter of this year. The order was financed by the Russian Sberbank, which opened a credit line for Volga-Dnepr Leasing Company with a limit of up to 45 million rubles for seven years in the early 2007.

Volga-Dnepr Group launched the programme on the upgrade of IL-76TD in 2002. In 2004, as a part of this project, the Group founded Volga-Dnepr Leasing Company. In 2006, the three-year work on modernization of the aircraft was successfully completed, and the first IL-76TD-90VD (VD stands for Volga-Dnepr) was commissioned for exploitation.

IL-76TD-90VD complies with the modern and forward-looking requirements and can be exploited in any part of the world without any restrictions. Modernised aircrafts use PS-90A-76 engines and the latest avionics – Kupol-III-76VD aircraft instrumentation. The maximum flight range was extended, the frequency of the required maintenance works was reduced, the number of the members of the crew was also decreased.

Today, IL-76TD-90VD is the most efficient ramp aircraft with the cargo conveyance capacity of from 20 to 50 tonnes. The costs of transporting one tonne of cargo by IL-76TD-90VD are twice as low as by Hercules, the closest, an in fact, the only western analogue of IL-76TD.