Former head of Red Wings and Zhukovsky plans to buy Volga-Dnepr Group - newspaper
MOSCOW. Sept 17 (Interfax) - Evraz Avia Servis (EAS) LLC of Yevgeny Solodilin, who was formerly head of the Red Wings airline and Zhukovsky Airport, is negotiating the purchase of the cargo group Volga-Dnepr, the Kommersant newspaper reported, citing sources.
The parties have signed a preliminary agreement under which the buyer will receive all three airlines of the group (Volga-Dnepr, Atran and AirBridgeCargo, ABC), as well as the aircraft maintenance companies Volga-Dnepr Technics, Volga-Dnepr Engineering and others, the sources said. EAS confirmed its intention to purchase but did not disclose the size of the deal.
According to one of the publication's sources, the buyer's plan is first of all to request government permission to export nine Boeing 747-8s from the ABC fleet for return to lessors. "There is extremely high global demand for them, whereas in Russia there is neither a market for them, nor conditions for maintenance, nor a need from other operators to cannibalize these aircraft for parts," the source said. At the same time, the source said that this is about a desire for a "mutually beneficial settlement" of relations with foreign structures. In Cologne, the group has a detained Boeing 737-800 which belongs to it, and in Leipzig three of its own An-124s and a spare parts warehouse have been seized. The group will strive to regain access to them.
The group's remaining Boeing aircraft will be purchased from foreign owners and returned to service. Furthermore, the company expects to integrate the Il-96-400, Tu-204 and Tu-214 into its fleet. The source did not specify where the company plans to acquire these aircraft.
In August, the founder of Volga-Dnepr, Alexei Isaikin, announced to staff the prospect of transferring the cargo group to the state, and later the management proposed that the government take over the asset. Some of Kommersant's sources said that top management was trying to save the loss-making company from bankruptcy. But on September 11, the Transport Ministry sent a letter to Volga-Dnepr saying that it considered the transfer of the group to state ownership inexpedient. The letter said that the entry of the Russian Federation into the group's capital under sanctions would contradict the holding's anti-sanction development model.
Volga-Dnepr Group was one of the largest on the global market for the air transportation of super-heavy and oversized cargo until 2022. In 2022-2024, it came under sanctions from Canada, the EU, the UK and the U.S. The group's foreign aircraft ceased flights from 2022. Volga-Dnepr Group has three out of 11 An-124s in airworthy condition (four of them have been confiscated abroad), as well as five Il-76s. Before sanctions, Atran's fleet consisted of nine Boeing aircraft; currently, two An-12s perform flights. ABC has 14 Boeing aircraft in storage.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, EAS was established by Solodilin in Zhukovsky in February 2025 with a charter capital of 1 million rubles. He headed Zhukovsky airport from 2016 to 2022, and Red Wings (part of Rostec) from 2022 to 2024.
